Multi-command single utterance input method

ABSTRACT

Systems and processes are disclosed for handling a multi-part voice command for a virtual assistant. Speech input can be received from a user that includes multiple actionable commands within a single utterance. A text string can be generated from the speech input using a speech transcription process. The text string can be parsed into multiple candidate substrings based on domain keywords, imperative verbs, predetermined substring lengths, or the like. For each candidate substring, a probability can be determined indicating whether the candidate substring corresponds to an actionable command. Such probabilities can be determined based on semantic coherence, similarity to user request templates, querying services to determine manageability, or the like. If the probabilities exceed a threshold, the user intent of each substring can be determined, processes associated with the user intents can be executed, and an acknowledgment can be provided to the user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/724,623, entitled “MULTI-COMMAND SINGLE UTTERANCE INPUT METHOD,”filed May 28, 2015, which claims the benefit of priority of U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/005,556, entitled “MULTI-COMMANDSINGLE UTTERANCE INPUT METHOD,” filed May 30, 2014; and U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 62/129,851, entitled “MULTI-COMMAND SINGLEUTTERANCE INPUT METHOD,” filed Mar. 8, 2015. The content of theseapplications is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

This relates generally to speech processing for a virtual assistant and,more specifically, to processing a single utterance having multipleactionable commands for a virtual assistant.

BACKGROUND

Intelligent automated assistants (or virtual assistants) provide anintuitive interface between users and electronic devices. Theseassistants can allow users to interact with devices or systems usingnatural language in spoken and/or text forms. For example, a user canaccess the services of an electronic device by providing a spoken userinput in natural language form to a virtual assistant associated withthe electronic device. The virtual assistant can perform naturallanguage processing on the spoken user input to infer the user's intentand operationalize the user's intent into tasks. The tasks can then beperformed by executing one or more functions of the electronic device,and a relevant output can be returned to the user in natural languageform.

While electronic user devices continue to provide enhancedfunctionality, however, some users can get overwhelmed withnotifications, announcements, messages, reminders, or the like.Moreover, it can be inefficient and time consuming for users to dealwith each notification, announcement, message, or reminder individually.For example, using speech to interact with a virtual assistant, a usercan typically address only a single item, function, or activity at onetime. In addition, users may need to wait for a virtual assistant taskto be completed before moving on to another task. Such delays, inaddition to limiting efficiency, can also break user concentration,which can cause users to forget other items they may have had in mind.

Accordingly, in some instances, it can be time consuming, inefficient,and frustrating for users to deal with multiple tasks—one at atime—using speech to interact with a virtual assistant.

SUMMARY

Systems and processes are disclosed for processing a multi-part voicecommand. In one example, speech input can be received from a user thatincludes a single utterance having one or more actionable commands. Atext string can be generated based on the speech input using a speechtranscription process. The text string can be parsed into multiplecandidate substrings. Probabilities can be determined for each of thecandidate substrings indicating whether they are likely to correspond toactionable commands. In response to the probabilities exceeding athreshold, user intents can be determined for each of the candidatesubstrings. Processes associated with the user intents can then beexecuted. An acknowledgment can also be provided to the user associatedwith the various user intents.

In some examples, the text string can be parsed by identifying domainkeywords. In other examples, the text string can be parsed byidentifying imperative verbs. The probability that a substringcorresponds to an actionable command can be determined by determining asemantic coherence of the substring. The probability can also bedetermined by comparing the substring to user request templates. Theprobability can also be determined by submitting the substring to aservice and receiving a likelihood that the service can resolve anactionable command from the substring.

In addition, in some examples, user intent for a substring can bedetermined based on words in a previous substring. User intent can alsobe determined based on displayed information. Displayed information caninclude a list, and user intent can be determined based on ordinaldescriptors associated with items in the list. Displayed information caninclude notifications and emails. User intent can also be determined bydetermining potential user requests based on displayed information.

Moreover, in some examples, an acknowledgment can include an audibleconfirmation or haptic feedback. Providing an acknowledgment can alsoinclude providing tasks associated with user intents, includingdisplaying the tasks. Providing an acknowledgment can also includeproviding a completion indicator, including displaying a completionindicator like a checkmark. Providing an acknowledgment can also includeproviding a status indicator, including displaying a status indicatorlike an hourglass or a status bar. In other examples, providing anacknowledgement can include displaying different candidate substringsusing different forms of emphasis, such as bold text, italic text,underlined text, circled text, outlined text, colored text, and/orclustered text.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the various described embodiments,reference should be made to the Description of Embodiments below, inconjunction with the following drawings in which like reference numeralsrefer to corresponding parts throughout the figures.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system and environment forimplementing a digital assistant according to various examples.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating a portable multifunction deviceimplementing the client-side portion of a digital assistant inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components for eventhandling according to various examples.

FIG. 3 illustrates a portable multifunction device implementing theclient-side portion of a digital assistant according to variousexamples.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary multifunction device with adisplay and a touch-sensitive surface according to various examples.

FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary user interface for a menu ofapplications on a portable multifunction device according to variousexamples.

FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary user interface for a multifunctiondevice with a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the displayaccording to various examples.

FIG. 6A illustrates a personal electronic device according to variousexamples.

FIG. 6B is a block diagram illustrating a personal electronic deviceaccording to various examples.

FIG. 7A is a block diagram illustrating a digital assistant system or aserver portion thereof according to various examples.

FIG. 7B illustrates the functions of the digital assistant shown in FIG.7A according to various examples.

FIG. 7C illustrates a portion of an ontology according to variousexamples.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary process for handling multiple actionablecommands in a single user utterance.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary parsed multi-part voice command.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary display with context for interpreting amulti-part voice command.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary display with multiple notifications ofvarious types usable as context for interpreting a multi-part voicecommand.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary display with an email applicationusable as context for interpreting a multi-part voice command.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary user interface for conveying the statusof a multi-part voice command.

FIG. 14A and FIG. 14B illustrate exemplary user interfaces for conveyingrecognition of a multi-part voice command.

FIG. 15 illustrates a functional block diagram of an electronic deviceconfigured to process a multi-part voice command according to variousexamples.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

In the following description of examples, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings in which it is shown by way of illustrationspecific examples that can be practiced. It is to be understood thatother examples can be used and structural changes can be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the various examples.

Below, FIGS. 2A-2B, 3, 4, 5A-5B, and 6A-6B provide a description ofexemplary devices for performing the techniques for processingmulti-part voice commands. FIGS. 10-14B illustrate exemplary userinterfaces. The user interfaces in the figures are also used toillustrate the processes described below, including the process 800 inFIG. 8.

Although the following description uses terms “first,” “second,” etc. todescribe various elements, these elements should not be limited by theterms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element fromanother. For example, a first input could be termed a second input, and,similarly, a second input could be termed a first input, withoutdeparting from the scope of the various described examples. The firstinput and the second input can both be outputs and, in some cases, canbe separate and different inputs.

The terminology used in the description of the various describedexamples herein is for the purpose of describing particular examplesonly and is not intended to be limiting. As used in the description ofthe various described examples and the appended claims, the singularforms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms aswell, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also beunderstood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to andencompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of theassociated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms“includes,” “including,” “comprises,” and/or “comprising,” when used inthis specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers,steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude thepresence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps,operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

The term “if” may be construed to mean “when” or “upon” or “in responseto determining” or “in response to detecting,” depending on the context.Similarly, the phrase “if it is determined” or “if [a stated conditionor event] is detected” may be construed to mean “upon determining” or“in response to determining” or “upon detecting [the stated condition orevent]” or “in response to detecting [the stated condition or event],”depending on the context.

1. System and Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of system 100 according to variousexamples. In some examples, system 100 can implement a digitalassistant. The terms “digital assistant,” “virtual assistant,”“intelligent automated assistant,” or “automatic digital assistant” canrefer to any information processing system that interprets naturallanguage input in spoken and/or textual form to infer user intent, andperforms actions based on the inferred user intent. For example, to acton an inferred user intent, the system can perform one or more of thefollowing: identifying a task flow with steps and parameters designed toaccomplish the inferred user intent, inputting specific requirementsfrom the inferred user intent into the task flow; executing the taskflow by invoking programs, methods, services, APIs, or the like; andgenerating output responses to the user in an audible (e.g., speech)and/or visual form.

Specifically, a digital assistant can be capable of accepting a userrequest at least partially in the form of a natural language command,request, statement, narrative, and/or inquiry. Typically, the userrequest can seek either an informational answer or performance of a taskby the digital assistant. A satisfactory response to the user requestcan be a provision of the requested informational answer, a performanceof the requested task, or a combination of the two. For example, a usercan ask the digital assistant a question, such as “Where am I rightnow?” Based on the user's current location, the digital assistant cananswer, “You are in Central Park near the west gate.” The user can alsorequest the performance of a task, for example, “Please invite myfriends to my girlfriend's birthday party next week.” In response, thedigital assistant can acknowledge the request by saying “Yes, rightaway,” and then send a suitable calendar invite on behalf of the user toeach of the user's friends listed in the user's electronic address book.During performance of a requested task, the digital assistant cansometimes interact with the user in a continuous dialogue involvingmultiple exchanges of information over an extended period of time. Thereare numerous other ways of interacting with a digital assistant torequest information or performance of various tasks. In addition toproviding verbal responses and taking programmed actions, the digitalassistant can also provide responses in other visual or audio forms,e.g., as text, alerts, music, videos, animations, etc.

As shown in FIG. 1, in some examples, a digital assistant can beimplemented according to a client-server model. The digital assistantcan include client-side portion 102 (hereafter “DA client 102”) executedon user device 104 and server-side portion 106 (hereafter “DA server106”) executed on server system 108. DA client 102 can communicate withDA server 106 through one or more networks 110. DA client 102 canprovide client-side functionalities such as user-facing input and outputprocessing and communication with DA server 106. DA server 106 canprovide server-side functionalities for any number of DA clients 102each residing on a respective user device 104.

In some examples, DA server 106 can include client-facing I/O interface112, one or more processing modules 114, data and models 116, and I/Ointerface to external services 118. The client-facing I/O interface 112can facilitate the client-facing input and output processing for DAserver 106. One or more processing modules 114 can utilize data andmodels 116 to process speech input and determine the user's intent basedon natural language input. Further, one or more processing modules 114perform task execution based on inferred user intent. In some examples,DA server 106 can communicate with external services 120 throughnetwork(s) 110 for task completion or information acquisition. I/Ointerface to external services 118 can facilitate such communications.

User device 104 can be any suitable electronic device. For example, userdevice 104 can be a portable multifunctional device (e.g., device 200,described below with reference to FIG. 2A), a multifunctional device(e.g., device 400, described below with reference to FIG. 4), or apersonal electronic device (e.g., device 600, described below withreference to FIG. 6A-B.) A portable multifunctional device can be, forexample, a mobile telephone that also contains other functions, such asPDA and/or music player functions. Specific examples of portablemultifunction devices can include the iPhone®, iPod Touch®, and iPad®devices from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Other examples of portablemultifunction devices can include, without limitation, laptop or tabletcomputers. Further, in some examples, user device 104 can be anon-portable multifunctional device. In particular, user device 104 canbe a desktop computer, a game console, a television, or a televisionset-top box. In some examples, user device 104 can include atouch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch screen displays and/or touchpads).Further, user device 104 can optionally include one or more otherphysical user-interface devices, such as a physical keyboard, a mouse,and/or a joystick. Various examples of electronic devices, such asmultifunctional devices, are described below in greater detail.

Examples of communication network(s) 110 can include local area networks(LAN) and wide area networks (WAN), e.g., the Internet. Communicationnetwork(s) 110 can be implemented using any known network protocol,including various wired or wireless protocols, such as, for example,Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM), Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), codedivision multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA),Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-MAX, or anyother suitable communication protocol.

Server system 108 can be implemented on one or more standalone dataprocessing apparatus or a distributed network of computers. In someexamples, server system 108 can also employ various virtual devicesand/or services of third-party service providers (e.g., third-partycloud service providers) to provide the underlying computing resourcesand/or infrastructure resources of server system 108.

In some examples, user device 104 can communicate with DA server 106 viasecond user device 122. Second user device 122 can be similar oridentical to user device 104. For example, second user device 122 can besimilar to devices 200, 400, or 600 described below with reference toFIGS. 2A, 4, and 6A-B. User device 104 can be configured tocommunicatively couple to second user device 122 via a directcommunication connection, such as Bluetooth, NFC, BTLE, or the like, orvia a wired or wireless network, such as a local Wi-Fi network. In someexamples, second user device 122 can be configured to act as a proxybetween user device 104 and DA server 106. For example, DA client 102 ofuser device 104 can be configured to transmit information (e.g., a userrequest received at user device 104) to DA server 106 via second userdevice 122. DA server 106 can process the information and returnrelevant data (e.g., data content responsive to the user request) touser device 104 via second user device 122.

In some examples, user device 104 can be configured to communicateabbreviated requests for data to second user device 122 to reduce theamount of information transmitted from user device 104. Second userdevice 122 can be configured to determine supplemental information toadd to the abbreviated request to generate a complete request totransmit to DA server 106. This system architecture can advantageouslyallow user device 104 having limited communication capabilities and/orlimited battery power (e.g., a watch or a similar compact electronicdevice) to access services provided by DA server 106 by using seconduser device 122, having greater communication capabilities and/orbattery power (e.g., a mobile phone, laptop computer, tablet computer,or the like), as a proxy to DA server 106. While only two user devices104 and 122 are shown in FIG. 1, it should be appreciated that system100 can include any number and type of user devices configured in thisproxy configuration to communicate with DA server system 106.

Although the digital assistant shown in FIG. 1 can include both aclient-side portion (e.g., DA client 102) and a server-side portion(e.g., DA server 106), in some examples, the functions of a digitalassistant can be implemented as a standalone application installed on auser device. In addition, the divisions of functionalities between theclient and server portions of the digital assistant can vary indifferent implementations. For instance, in some examples, the DA clientcan be a thin-client that provides only user-facing input and outputprocessing functions, and delegates all other functionalities of thedigital assistant to a backend server.

2. Electronic Devices

Attention is now directed toward embodiments of electronic devices forimplementing the client-side portion of a digital assistant. FIG. 2A isa block diagram illustrating portable multifunction device 200 withtouch-sensitive display system 212 in accordance with some embodiments.Touch-sensitive display 212 is sometimes called a “touch screen” forconvenience and is sometimes known as or called a “touch-sensitivedisplay system.” Device 200 includes memory 202 (which optionallyincludes one or more computer-readable storage mediums), memorycontroller 222, one or more processing units (CPUs) 220, peripheralsinterface 218, RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211,microphone 213, input/output (I/O) subsystem 206, other input controldevices 216, and external port 224. Device 200 optionally includes oneor more optical sensors 264. Device 200 optionally includes one or morecontact intensity sensors 265 for detecting intensity of contacts ondevice 200 (e.g., a touch-sensitive surface such as touch-sensitivedisplay system 212 of device 200). Device 200 optionally includes one ormore tactile output generators 267 for generating tactile outputs ondevice 200 (e.g., generating tactile outputs on a touch-sensitivesurface such as touch-sensitive display system 212 of device 200 ortouchpad 455 of device 400). These components optionally communicateover one or more communication buses or signal lines 203.

As used in the specification and claims, the term “intensity” of acontact on a touch-sensitive surface refers to the force or pressure(force per unit area) of a contact (e.g., a finger contact) on thetouch-sensitive surface, or to a substitute (proxy) for the force orpressure of a contact on the touch-sensitive surface. The intensity of acontact has a range of values that includes at least four distinctvalues and more typically includes hundreds of distinct values (e.g., atleast 256). Intensity of a contact is, optionally, determined (ormeasured) using various approaches and various sensors or combinationsof sensors. For example, one or more force sensors underneath oradjacent to the touch-sensitive surface are, optionally, used to measureforce at various points on the touch-sensitive surface. In someimplementations, force measurements from multiple force sensors arecombined (e.g., a weighted average) to determine an estimated force of acontact. Similarly, a pressure-sensitive tip of a stylus is, optionally,used to determine a pressure of the stylus on the touch-sensitivesurface. Alternatively, the size of the contact area detected on thetouch-sensitive surface and/or changes thereto, the capacitance of thetouch-sensitive surface proximate to the contact and/or changes thereto,and/or the resistance of the touch-sensitive surface proximate to thecontact and/or changes thereto are, optionally, used as a substitute forthe force or pressure of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface. Insome implementations, the substitute measurements for contact force orpressure are used directly to determine whether an intensity thresholdhas been exceeded (e.g., the intensity threshold is described in unitscorresponding to the substitute measurements). In some implementations,the substitute measurements for contact force or pressure are convertedto an estimated force or pressure, and the estimated force or pressureis used to determine whether an intensity threshold has been exceeded(e.g., the intensity threshold is a pressure threshold measured in unitsof pressure). Using the intensity of a contact as an attribute of a userinput allows for user access to additional device functionality that mayotherwise not be accessible by the user on a reduced-size device withlimited real estate for displaying affordances (e.g., on atouch-sensitive display) and/or receiving user input (e.g., via atouch-sensitive display, a touch-sensitive surface, or aphysical/mechanical control such as a knob or a button).

As used in the specification and claims, the term “tactile output”refers to physical displacement of a device relative to a previousposition of the device, physical displacement of a component (e.g., atouch-sensitive surface) of a device relative to another component(e.g., housing) of the device, or displacement of the component relativeto a center of mass of the device that will be detected by a user withthe user's sense of touch. For example, in situations where the deviceor the component of the device is in contact with a surface of a userthat is sensitive to touch (e.g., a finger, palm, or other part of auser's hand), the tactile output generated by the physical displacementwill be interpreted by the user as a tactile sensation corresponding toa perceived change in physical characteristics of the device or thecomponent of the device. For example, movement of a touch-sensitivesurface (e.g., a touch-sensitive display or trackpad) is, optionally,interpreted by the user as a “down click” or “up click” of a physicalactuator button. In some cases, a user will feel a tactile sensationsuch as an “down click” or “up click” even when there is no movement ofa physical actuator button associated with the touch-sensitive surfacethat is physically pressed (e.g., displaced) by the user's movements. Asanother example, movement of the touch-sensitive surface is, optionally,interpreted or sensed by the user as “roughness” of the touch-sensitivesurface, even when there is no change in smoothness of thetouch-sensitive surface. While such interpretations of touch by a userwill be subject to the individualized sensory perceptions of the user,there are many sensory perceptions of touch that are common to a largemajority of users. Thus, when a tactile output is described ascorresponding to a particular sensory perception of a user (e.g., an “upclick,” a “down click,” “roughness”), unless otherwise stated, thegenerated tactile output corresponds to physical displacement of thedevice or a component thereof that will generate the described sensoryperception for a typical (or average) user.

It should be appreciated that device 200 is only one example of aportable multifunction device, and that device 200 optionally has moreor fewer components than shown, optionally combines two or morecomponents, or optionally has a different configuration or arrangementof the components. The various components shown in FIG. 2A areimplemented in hardware, software, or a combination of both hardware andsoftware, including one or more signal processing and/orapplication-specific integrated circuits.

Memory 202 may include one or more computer-readable storage mediums.The computer-readable storage mediums may be tangible andnon-transitory. Memory 202 may include high-speed random access memoryand may also include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magneticdisk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatilesolid-state memory devices. Memory controller 222 may control access tomemory 202 by other components of device 200.

In some examples, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofmemory 202 can be used to store instructions (e.g., for performingaspects of process 800, described below) for use by or in connectionwith an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as acomputer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system thatcan fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system,apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In other examples,the instructions (e.g., for performing aspects of process 800, describedbelow) can be stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium (not shown) of the server system 108 or can be divided betweenthe non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of memory 202 andthe non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of server system108. In the context of this document, a “non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium” can be any medium that can contain orstore the program for use by or in connection with the instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device.

Peripherals interface 218 can be used to couple input and outputperipherals of the device to CPU 220 and memory 202. The one or moreprocessors 220 run or execute various software programs and/or sets ofinstructions stored in memory 202 to perform various functions fordevice 200 and to process data. In some embodiments, peripheralsinterface 218, CPU 220, and memory controller 222 may be implemented ona single chip, such as chip 204. In some other embodiments, they may beimplemented on separate chips.

RF (radio frequency) circuitry 208 receives and sends RF signals, alsocalled electromagnetic signals. RF circuitry 208 converts electricalsignals to/from electromagnetic signals and communicates withcommunications networks and other communications devices via theelectromagnetic signals. RF circuitry 208 optionally includes well-knowncircuitry for performing these functions, including but not limited toan antenna system, an RF transceiver, one or more amplifiers, a tuner,one or more oscillators, a digital signal processor, a CODEC chipset, asubscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory, and so forth. RFcircuitry 208 optionally communicates with networks, such as theInternet, also referred to as the World Wide Web (WWW), an intranetand/or a wireless network, such as a cellular telephone network, awireless local area network (LAN) and/or a metropolitan area network(MAN), and other devices by wireless communication. The RF circuitry 208optionally includes well-known circuitry for detecting near fieldcommunication (NFC) fields, such as by a short-range communicationradio. The wireless communication optionally uses any of a plurality ofcommunications standards, protocols, and technologies, including but notlimited to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced DataGSM Environment (EDGE), high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA),high-speed uplink packet access (HSDPA), Evolution, Data-Only (EV-DO),HSPA, HSPA+, Dual-Cell HSPA (DC-HSPDA), long term evolution (LTE), nearfield communication (NFC), wideband code division multiple access(W-CDMA), code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multipleaccess (TDMA), Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), Wireless Fidelity(Wi-Fi) (e.g., IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n,and/or IEEE 802.11ac), voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Wi-MAX, aprotocol for e mail (e.g., Internet message access protocol (IMAP)and/or post office protocol (POP)), instant messaging (e.g., extensiblemessaging and presence protocol (XMPP), Session Initiation Protocol forInstant Messaging and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE), InstantMessaging and Presence Service (IMPS)), and/or Short Message Service(SMS), or any other suitable communication protocol, includingcommunication protocols not yet developed as of the filing date of thisdocument.

Audio circuitry 210, speaker 211, and microphone 213 provide an audiointerface between a user and device 200. Audio circuitry 210 receivesaudio data from peripherals interface 218, converts the audio data to anelectrical signal, and transmits the electrical signal to speaker 211.Speaker 211 converts the electrical signal to human-audible sound waves.Audio circuitry 210 also receives electrical signals converted bymicrophone 213 from sound waves. Audio circuitry 210 converts theelectrical signal to audio data and transmits the audio data toperipherals interface 218 for processing. Audio data may be retrievedfrom and/or transmitted to memory 202 and/or RF circuitry 208 byperipherals interface 218. In some embodiments, audio circuitry 210 alsoincludes a headset jack (e.g., 312, FIG. 3). The headset jack providesan interface between audio circuitry 210 and removable audioinput/output peripherals, such as output-only headphones or a headsetwith both output (e.g., a headphone for one or both ears) and input(e.g., a microphone).

I/O subsystem 206 couples input/output peripherals on device 200, suchas touch screen 212 and other input control devices 216, to peripheralsinterface 218. I/O subsystem 206 optionally includes display controller256, optical sensor controller 258, intensity sensor controller 259,haptic feedback controller 261, and one or more input controllers 260for other input or control devices. The one or more input controllers260 receive/send electrical signals from/to other input control devices216. The other input control devices 216 optionally include physicalbuttons (e.g., push buttons, rocker buttons, etc.), dials, sliderswitches, joysticks, click wheels, and so forth. In some alternateembodiments, input controller(s) 260 are, optionally, coupled to any (ornone) of the following: a keyboard, an infrared port, a USB port, and apointer device such as a mouse. The one or more buttons (e.g., 308, FIG.3) optionally include an up/down button for volume control of speaker211 and/or microphone 213. The one or more buttons optionally include apush button (e.g., 306, FIG. 3).

A quick press of the push button may disengage a lock of touch screen212 or begin a process that uses gestures on the touch screen to unlockthe device, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. 11/322,549,“Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image,” filedDec. 23, 2005, U.S. Pat. No. 7,657,849, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety. A longer press of the push button (e.g., 306)may turn power to device 200 on or off. The user may be able tocustomize a functionality of one or more of the buttons. Touch screen212 is used to implement virtual or soft buttons and one or more softkeyboards.

Touch-sensitive display 212 provides an input interface and an outputinterface between the device and a user. Display controller 256 receivesand/or sends electrical signals from/to touch screen 212. Touch screen212 displays visual output to the user. The visual output may includegraphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof (collectivelytermed “graphics”). In some embodiments, some or all of the visualoutput may correspond to user-interface objects.

Touch screen 212 has a touch-sensitive surface, sensor, or set ofsensors that accepts input from the user based on haptic and/or tactilecontact. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 (along with anyassociated modules and/or sets of instructions in memory 202) detectcontact (and any movement or breaking of the contact) on touch screen212 and convert the detected contact into interaction withuser-interface objects (e.g., one or more soft keys, icons, web pages,or images) that are displayed on touch screen 212. In an exemplaryembodiment, a point of contact between touch screen 212 and the usercorresponds to a finger of the user.

Touch screen 212 may use LCD (liquid crystal display) technology, LPD(light emitting polymer display) technology, or LED (light emittingdiode) technology, although other display technologies may be used inother embodiments. Touch screen 212 and display controller 256 maydetect contact and any movement or breaking thereof using any of aplurality of touch sensing technologies now known or later developed,including but not limited to capacitive, resistive, infrared, andsurface acoustic wave technologies, as well as other proximity sensorarrays or other elements for determining one or more points of contactwith touch screen 212. In an exemplary embodiment, projected mutualcapacitance sensing technology is used, such as that found in theiPhone® and iPod Touch® from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.

A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of touch screen 212 may beanalogous to the multi-touch sensitive touchpads described in thefollowing U.S. Patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,323,846 (Westerman et al.),6,570,557 (Westerman et al.), and/or 6,677,932 (Westerman), and/or U.S.Patent Publication 2002/0015024A1, each of which is hereby incorporatedby reference in its entirety. However, touch screen 212 displays visualoutput from device 200, whereas touch-sensitive touchpads do not providevisual output.

A touch-sensitive display in some embodiments of touch screen 212 may beas described in the following applications: (1) U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/381,313, “Multipoint Touch Surface Controller,” filed May 2,2006; (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/840,862, “MultipointTouchscreen,” filed May 6, 2004; (3) U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/903,964, “Gestures For Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jul. 30,2004; (4) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/048,264, “Gestures ForTouch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jan. 31, 2005; (5) U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/038,590, “Mode-Based Graphical User InterfacesFor Touch Sensitive Input Devices,” filed Jan. 18, 2005; (6) U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/228,758, “Virtual Input Device Placement On ATouch Screen User Interface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (7) U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/228,700, “Operation Of A Computer With A TouchScreen Interface,” filed Sep. 16, 2005; (8) U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/228,737, “Activating Virtual Keys Of A Touch-Screen VirtualKeyboard,” filed September 16, 2005; and (9) U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/367,749, “Multi-Functional Hand-Held Device,” filed Mar. 3,2006. All of these applications are incorporated by reference herein intheir entirety.

Touch screen 212 may have a video resolution in excess of 100 dpi. Insome embodiments, the touch screen has a video resolution ofapproximately 160 dpi. The user may make contact with touch screen 212using any suitable object or appendage, such as a stylus, a finger, andso forth. In some embodiments, the user interface is designed to workprimarily with finger-based contacts and gestures, which can be lessprecise than stylus-based input due to the larger area of contact of afinger on the touch screen. In some embodiments, the device translatesthe rough finger-based input into a precise pointer/cursor position orcommand for performing the actions desired by the user.

In some embodiments, in addition to the touch screen, device 200 mayinclude a touchpad (not shown) for activating or deactivating particularfunctions. In some embodiments, the touchpad is a touch-sensitive areaof the device that, unlike the touch screen, does not display visualoutput. The touchpad may be a touch-sensitive surface that is separatefrom touch screen 212 or an extension of the touch-sensitive surfaceformed by the touch screen.

Device 200 also includes power system 262 for powering the variouscomponents. Power system 262 may include a power management system, oneor more power sources (e.g., battery, alternating current (AC)), arecharging system, a power failure detection circuit, a power converteror inverter, a power status indicator (e.g., a light-emitting diode(LED)) and any other components associated with the generation,management and distribution of power in portable devices.

Device 200 may also include one or more optical sensors 264. FIG. 2Ashows an optical sensor coupled to optical sensor controller 258 in I/Osubsystem 206. Optical sensor 264 may include charge-coupled device(CCD) or complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)phototransistors. Optical sensor 264 receives light from theenvironment, projected through one or more lenses, and converts thelight to data representing an image. In conjunction with imaging module243 (also called a camera module), optical sensor 264 may capture stillimages or video. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located onthe back of device 200, opposite touch screen display 212 on the frontof the device so that the touch screen display may be used as aviewfinder for still and/or video image acquisition. In someembodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device sothat the user's image may be obtained for video conferencing while theuser views the other video conference participants on the touch screendisplay. In some embodiments, the position of optical sensor 264 can bechanged by the user (e.g., by rotating the lens and the sensor in thedevice housing) so that a single optical sensor 264 may be used alongwith the touch screen display for both video conferencing and stilland/or video image acquisition.

Device 200 optionally also includes one or more contact intensitysensors 265. FIG. 2A shows a contact intensity sensor coupled tointensity sensor controller 259 in I/O subsystem 206. Contact intensitysensor 265 optionally includes one or more piezoresistive strain gauges,capacitive force sensors, electric force sensors, piezoelectric forcesensors, optical force sensors, capacitive touch-sensitive surfaces, orother intensity sensors (e.g., sensors used to measure the force (orpressure) of a contact on a touch-sensitive surface). Contact intensitysensor 265 receives contact intensity information (e.g., pressureinformation or a proxy for pressure information) from the environment.In some embodiments, at least one contact intensity sensor is collocatedwith, or proximate to, a touch-sensitive surface (e.g., touch-sensitivedisplay system 212). In some embodiments, at least one contact intensitysensor is located on the back of device 200, opposite touch screendisplay 212, which is located on the front of device 200.

Device 200 may also include one or more proximity sensors 266. FIG. 2Ashows proximity sensor 266 coupled to peripherals interface 218.Alternately, proximity sensor 266 may be coupled to input controller 260in I/O subsystem 206. Proximity sensor 266 may perform as described inU.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/241,839, “Proximity Detector InHandheld Device”; 11/240,788, “Proximity Detector In Handheld Device”;11/620,702, “Using Ambient Light Sensor To Augment Proximity SensorOutput”; 11/586,862, “Automated Response To And Sensing Of User ActivityIn Portable Devices”; and 11/638,251, “Methods And Systems For AutomaticConfiguration Of Peripherals,” which are hereby incorporated byreference in their entirety. In some embodiments, the proximity sensorturns off and disables touch screen 212 when the multifunction device isplaced near the user's ear (e.g., when the user is making a phone call).

Device 200 optionally also includes one or more tactile outputgenerators 267. FIG. 2A shows a tactile output generator coupled tohaptic feedback controller 261 in I/O subsystem 206. Tactile outputgenerator 267 optionally includes one or more electroacoustic devicessuch as speakers or other audio components and/or electromechanicaldevices that convert energy into linear motion such as a motor,solenoid, electroactive polymer, piezoelectric actuator, electrostaticactuator, or other tactile output generating component (e.g., acomponent that converts electrical signals into tactile outputs on thedevice). Contact intensity sensor 265 receives tactile feedbackgeneration instructions from haptic feedback module 233 and generatestactile outputs on device 200 that are capable of being sensed by a userof device 200. In some embodiments, at least one tactile outputgenerator is collocated with, or proximate to, a touch-sensitive surface(e.g., touch-sensitive display system 212) and, optionally, generates atactile output by moving the touch-sensitive surface vertically (e.g.,in/out of a surface of device 200) or laterally (e.g., back and forth inthe same plane as a surface of device 200). In some embodiments, atleast one tactile output generator sensor is located on the back ofdevice 200, opposite touch screen display 212, which is located on thefront of device 200.

Device 200 may also include one or more accelerometers 268. FIG. 2Ashows accelerometer 268 coupled to peripherals interface 218.Alternately, accelerometer 268 may be coupled to an input controller 260in I/O subsystem 206. Accelerometer 268 may perform as described in U.S.Patent Publication No. 20050190059, “Acceleration-based Theft DetectionSystem for Portable Electronic Devices,” and U.S. Patent Publication No.20060017692, “Methods And Apparatuses For Operating A Portable DeviceBased On An Accelerometer,” both of which are incorporated by referenceherein in their entirety. In some embodiments, information is displayedon the touch screen display in a portrait view or a landscape view basedon an analysis of data received from the one or more accelerometers.Device 200 optionally includes, in addition to accelerometer(s) 268, amagnetometer (not shown) and a GPS (or GLONASS or other globalnavigation system) receiver (not shown) for obtaining informationconcerning the location and orientation (e.g., portrait or landscape) ofdevice 200.

In some embodiments, the software components stored in memory 202include operating system 226, communication module (or set ofinstructions) 228, contact/motion module (or set of instructions) 230,graphics module (or set of instructions) 232, text input module (or setof instructions) 234, Global Positioning System (GPS) module (or set ofinstructions) 235, Digital Assistant Client Module 229, and applications(or sets of instructions) 236. Further, memory 202 can store data andmodels, such as user data and models 231. Furthermore, in someembodiments, memory 202 (FIG. 2A) or 470 (FIG. 4) stores device/globalinternal state 257, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 4. Device/global internalstate 257 includes one or more of: active application state, indicatingwhich applications, if any, are currently active; display state,indicating what applications, views or other information occupy variousregions of touch screen display 212; sensor state, including informationobtained from the device's various sensors and input control devices216; and location information concerning the device's location and/orattitude.

Operating system 226 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, OS X, iOS,WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) includesvarious software components and/or drivers for controlling and managinggeneral system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control,power management, etc.) and facilitates communication between varioushardware and software components.

Communication module 228 facilitates communication with other devicesover one or more external ports 224 and also includes various softwarecomponents for handling data received by RF circuitry 208 and/orexternal port 224. External port 224 (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB),FIREWIRE, etc.) is adapted for coupling directly to other devices orindirectly over a network (e.g., the Internet, wireless LAN, etc.). Insome embodiments, the external port is a multi-pin (e.g., 30-pin)connector that is the same as, or similar to and/or compatible with, the30-pin connector used on iPod® (trademark of Apple Inc.) devices.

Contact/motion module 230 optionally detects contact with touch screen212 (in conjunction with display controller 256) and othertouch-sensitive devices (e.g., a touchpad or physical click wheel).Contact/motion module 230 includes various software components forperforming various operations related to detection of contact, such asdetermining if contact has occurred (e.g., detecting a finger-downevent), determining an intensity of the contact (e.g., the force orpressure of the contact or a substitute for the force or pressure of thecontact), determining if there is movement of the contact and trackingthe movement across the touch-sensitive surface (e.g., detecting one ormore finger-dragging events), and determining if the contact has ceased(e.g., detecting a finger-up event or a break in contact).Contact/motion module 230 receives contact data from the touch-sensitivesurface. Determining movement of the point of contact, which isrepresented by a series of contact data, optionally includes determiningspeed (magnitude), velocity (magnitude and direction), and/or anacceleration (a change in magnitude and/or direction) of the point ofcontact. These operations are, optionally, applied to single contacts(e.g., one finger contacts) or to multiple simultaneous contacts (e.g.,“multitouch”/multiple finger contacts). In some embodiments,contact/motion module 230 and display controller 256 detect contact on atouchpad.

In some embodiments, contact/motion module 230 uses a set of one or moreintensity thresholds to determine whether an operation has beenperformed by a user (e.g., to determine whether a user has “clicked” onan icon). In some embodiments, at least a subset of the intensitythresholds are determined in accordance with software parameters (e.g.,the intensity thresholds are not determined by the activation thresholdsof particular physical actuators and can be adjusted without changingthe physical hardware of device 200). For example, a mouse “click”threshold of a trackpad or touch screen display can be set to any of alarge range of predefined threshold values without changing the trackpador touch screen display hardware. Additionally, in some implementations,a user of the device is provided with software settings for adjustingone or more of the set of intensity thresholds (e.g., by adjustingindividual intensity thresholds and/or by adjusting a plurality ofintensity thresholds at once with a system-level click “intensity”parameter).

Contact/motion module 230 optionally detects a gesture input by a user.Different gestures on the touch-sensitive surface have different contactpatterns (e.g., different motions, timings, and/or intensities ofdetected contacts). Thus, a gesture is, optionally, detected bydetecting a particular contact pattern. For example, detecting a fingertap gesture includes detecting a finger-down event followed by detectinga finger-up (liftoff) event at the same position (or substantially thesame position) as the finger-down event (e.g., at the position of anicon). As another example, detecting a finger swipe gesture on thetouch-sensitive surface includes detecting a finger-down event followedby detecting one or more finger-dragging events, and subsequentlyfollowed by detecting a finger-up (liftoff) event.

Graphics module 232 includes various known software components forrendering and displaying graphics on touch screen 212 or other display,including components for changing the visual impact (e.g., brightness,transparency, saturation, contrast, or other visual property) ofgraphics that are displayed. As used herein, the term “graphics”includes any object that can be displayed to a user, including, withoutlimitation, text, web pages, icons (such as user-interface objectsincluding soft keys), digital images, videos, animations, and the like.

In some embodiments, graphics module 232 stores data representinggraphics to be used. Each graphic is, optionally, assigned acorresponding code. Graphics module 232 receives, from applicationsetc., one or more codes specifying graphics to be displayed along with,if necessary, coordinate data and other graphic property data, and thengenerates screen image data to output to display controller 256.

Haptic feedback module 233 includes various software components forgenerating instructions used by tactile output generator(s) 267 toproduce tactile outputs at one or more locations on device 200 inresponse to user interactions with device 200.

Text input module 234, which may be a component of graphics module 232,provides soft keyboards for entering text in various applications (e.g.,contacts 237, e mail 240, IM 241, browser 247, and any other applicationthat needs text input).

GPS module 235 determines the location of the device and provides thisinformation for use in various applications (e.g., to telephone 238 foruse in location-based dialing; to camera 243 as picture/video metadata;and to applications that provide location-based services such as weatherwidgets, local yellow page widgets, and map/navigation widgets).

Digital assistant client module 229 can include various client-sidedigital assistant instructions to provide the client-sidefunctionalities of the digital assistant. For example, digital assistantclient module 229 can be capable of accepting voice input (e.g., speechinput), text input, touch input, and/or gestural input through varioususer interfaces (e.g., microphone 213, accelerometer(s) 268,touch-sensitive display system 212, optical sensor(s) 229, other inputcontrol devices 216, etc.) of portable multifunction device 200. Digitalassistant client module 229 can also be capable of providing output inaudio (e.g., speech output), visual, and/or tactile forms throughvarious output interfaces (e.g., speaker 211, touch-sensitive displaysystem 212, tactile output generator(s) 267, etc.) of portablemultifunction device 200. For example, output can be provided as voice,sound, alerts, text messages, menus, graphics, videos, animations,vibrations, and/or combinations of two or more of the above. Duringoperation, digital assistant client module 229 can communicate with DAserver 106 using RF circuitry 208.

User data and models 231 can include various data associated with theuser (e.g., user-specific vocabulary data, user preference data,user-specified name pronunciations, data from the user's electronicaddress book, to-do lists, shopping lists, etc.) to provide theclient-side functionalities of the digital assistant. Further, user dataand models 231 can includes various models (e.g., speech recognitionmodels, statistical language models, natural language processing models,ontology, task flow models, service models, etc.) for processing userinput and determining user intent.

In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 can utilize thevarious sensors, subsystems, and peripheral devices of portablemultifunction device 200 to gather additional information from thesurrounding environment of the portable multifunction device 200 toestablish a context associated with a user, the current userinteraction, and/or the current user input. In some examples, digitalassistant client module 229 can provide the contextual information or asubset thereof with the user input to DA server 106 to help infer theuser's intent. In some examples, the digital assistant can also use thecontextual information to determine how to prepare and deliver outputsto the user. Contextual information can be referred to as context data.

In some examples, the contextual information that accompanies the userinput can include sensor information, e.g., lighting, ambient noise,ambient temperature, images or videos of the surrounding environment,etc. In some examples, the contextual information can also include thephysical state of the device, e.g., device orientation, device location,device temperature, power level, speed, acceleration, motion patterns,cellular signals strength, etc. In some examples, information related tothe software state of DA server 106, e.g., running processes, installedprograms, past and present network activities, background services,error logs, resources usage, etc., and of portable multifunction device200 can be provided to DA server 106 as contextual informationassociated with a user input.

In some examples, the digital assistant client module 229 canselectively provide information (e.g., user data 231) stored on theportable multifunction device 200 in response to requests from DA server106. In some examples, digital assistant client module 229 can alsoelicit additional input from the user via a natural language dialogue orother user interfaces upon request by DA server 106. Digital assistantclient module 229 can pass the additional input to DA server 106 to helpDA server 106 in intent deduction and/or fulfillment of the user'sintent expressed in the user request.

A more detailed description of a digital assistant is described belowwith reference to FIGS. 7A-C. It should be recognized that digitalassistant client module 229 can include any number of the sub-modules ofdigital assistant module 726 described below.

Applications 236 may include the following modules (or sets ofinstructions), or a subset or superset thereof:

-   -   Contacts module 237 (sometimes called an address book or contact        list);    -   Telephone module 238;    -   Video conference module 239;    -   E-mail client module 240;    -   Instant messaging (IM) module 241;    -   Workout support module 242;    -   Camera module 243 for still and/or video images;    -   Image management module 244;    -   Video player module;    -   Music player module;    -   Browser module 247;    -   Calendar module 248;    -   Widget modules 249, which may include one or more of: weather        widget 249-1, stocks widget 249-2, calculator widget 249-3,        alarm clock widget 249-4, dictionary widget 249-5, and other        widgets obtained by the user, as well as user-created widgets        249-6;    -   Widget creator module 250 for making user-created widgets 249-6;    -   Search module 251;    -   Video and music player module 252, which merges video player        module and music player module;    -   Notes module 253;    -   Map module 254; and/or    -   Online video module 255.

Examples of other applications 236 that may be stored in memory 202include other word processing applications, other image editingapplications, drawing applications, presentation applications,JAVA-enabled applications, encryption, digital rights management, voicerecognition, and voice replication.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module234, contacts module 237 may be used to manage an address book orcontact list (e.g., stored in application internal state 292 of contactsmodule 237 in memory 202 or memory 470), including: adding name(s) tothe address book; deleting name(s) from the address book; associatingtelephone number(s), e-mail address(es), physical address(es) or otherinformation with a name; associating an image with a name; categorizingand sorting names; providing telephone numbers or e-mail addresses toinitiate and/or facilitate communications by telephone 238, videoconference module 239, e-mail 240, or IM 241; and so forth.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211,microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, contact/motionmodule 230, graphics module 232, and text input module 234, telephonemodule 238 may be used to enter a sequence of characters correspondingto a telephone number, access one or more telephone numbers in contactsmodule 237, modify a telephone number that has been entered, dial arespective telephone number, conduct a conversation, and disconnect orhang up when the conversation is completed. As noted above, the wirelesscommunication may use any of a plurality of communications standards,protocols, and technologies.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, audio circuitry 210, speaker 211,microphone 213, touch screen 212, display controller 256, optical sensor264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230, graphicsmodule 232, text input module 234, contacts module 237, and telephonemodule 238, video conference module 239 includes executable instructionsto initiate, conduct, and terminate a video conference between a userand one or more other participants in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and textinput module 234, e-mail client module 240 includes executableinstructions to create, send, receive, and manage e-mail in response touser instructions. In conjunction with image management module 244,e-mail client module 240 makes it very easy to create and send e-mailswith still or video images taken with camera module 243.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and textinput module 234, the instant messaging module 241 includes executableinstructions to enter a sequence of characters corresponding to aninstant message, to modify previously entered characters, to transmit arespective instant message (for example, using a Short Message Service(SMS) or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) protocol for telephony-basedinstant messages or using XIVIPP, SIMPLE, or IMPS for Internet-basedinstant messages), to receive instant messages, and to view receivedinstant messages. In some embodiments, transmitted and/or receivedinstant messages may include graphics, photos, audio files, video filesand/or other attachments as are supported in an MMS and/or an EnhancedMessaging Service (EMS). As used herein, “instant messaging” refers toboth telephony-based messages (e.g., messages sent using SMS or MMS) andInternet-based messages (e.g., messages sent using XMPP, SIMPLE, orIMPS).

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, GPS module 235, map module 254, and music playermodule, workout support module 242 includes executable instructions tocreate workouts (e.g., with time, distance, and/or calorie burninggoals); communicate with workout sensors (sports devices); receiveworkout sensor data; calibrate sensors used to monitor a workout; selectand play music for a workout; and display, store, and transmit workoutdata.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256, opticalsensor(s) 264, optical sensor controller 258, contact/motion module 230,graphics module 232, and image management module 244, camera module 243includes executable instructions to capture still images or video(including a video stream) and store them into memory 202, modifycharacteristics of a still image or video, or delete a still image orvideo from memory 202.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, text input module 234,and camera module 243, image management module 244 includes executableinstructions to arrange, modify (e.g., edit), or otherwise manipulate,label, delete, present (e.g., in a digital slide show or album), andstore still and/or video images.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and textinput module 234, browser module 247 includes executable instructions tobrowse the Internet in accordance with user instructions, includingsearching, linking to, receiving, and displaying web pages or portionsthereof, as well as attachments and other files linked to web pages.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, e-mail client module 240, and browser module 247,calendar module 248 includes executable instructions to create, display,modify, and store calendars and data associated with calendars (e.g.,calendar entries, to-do lists, etc.) in accordance with userinstructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, and browser module 247, widget modules 249 aremini-applications that may be downloaded and used by a user (e.g.,weather widget 249-1, stocks widget 249-2, calculator widget 249-3,alarm clock widget 249-4, and dictionary widget 249-5) or created by theuser (e.g., user-created widget 249-6). In some embodiments, a widgetincludes an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) file, a CSS (CascadingStyle Sheets) file, and a JavaScript file. In some embodiments, a widgetincludes an XML (Extensible Markup Language) file and a JavaScript file(e.g., Yahoo! Widgets).

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, and browser module 247, the widget creator module 250may be used by a user to create widgets (e.g., turning a user-specifiedportion of a web page into a widget).

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module234, search module 251 includes executable instructions to search fortext, music, sound, image, video, and/or other files in memory 202 thatmatch one or more search criteria (e.g., one or more user-specifiedsearch terms) in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuitry 210,speaker 211, RF circuitry 208, and browser module 247, video and musicplayer module 252 includes executable instructions that allow the userto download and play back recorded music and other sound files stored inone or more file formats, such as MP3 or AAC files, and executableinstructions to display, present, or otherwise play back videos (e.g.,on touch screen 212 or on an external, connected display via externalport 224). In some embodiments, device 200 optionally includes thefunctionality of an MP3 player, such as an iPod (trademark of AppleInc.).

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, and text input module234, notes module 253 includes executable instructions to create andmanage notes, to-do lists, and the like in accordance with userinstructions.

In conjunction with RF circuitry 208, touch screen 212, displaycontroller 256, contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, textinput module 234, GPS module 235, and browser module 247, map module 254may be used to receive, display, modify, and store maps and dataassociated with maps (e.g., driving directions, data on stores and otherpoints of interest at or near a particular location, and otherlocation-based data) in accordance with user instructions.

In conjunction with touch screen 212, display controller 256,contact/motion module 230, graphics module 232, audio circuitry 210,speaker 211, RF circuitry 208, text input module 234, e-mail clientmodule 240, and browser module 247, online video module 255 includesinstructions that allow the user to access, browse, receive (e.g., bystreaming and/or download), play back (e.g., on the touch screen or onan external, connected display via external port 224), send an e-mailwith a link to a particular online video, and otherwise manage onlinevideos in one or more file formats, such as H.264. In some embodiments,instant messaging module 241, rather than e-mail client module 240, isused to send a link to a particular online video. Additional descriptionof the online video application can be found in U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/936,562, “Portable Multifunction Device, Method, andGraphical User Interface for Playing Online Videos,” filed Jun. 20,2007, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/968,067, “PortableMultifunction Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for PlayingOnline Videos,” filed Dec. 31, 2007, the contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

Each of the above-identified modules and applications corresponds to aset of executable instructions for performing one or more functionsdescribed above and the methods described in this application (e.g., thecomputer-implemented methods and other information processing methodsdescribed herein). These modules (e.g., sets of instructions) need notbe implemented as separate software programs, procedures, or modules,and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwiserearranged in various embodiments. For example, video player module maybe combined with music player module into a single module (e.g., videoand music player module 252, FIG. 2A). In some embodiments, memory 202may store a subset of the modules and data structures identified above.Furthermore, memory 202 may store additional modules and data structuresnot described above.

In some embodiments, device 200 is a device where operation of apredefined set of functions on the device is performed exclusivelythrough a touch screen and/or a touchpad. By using a touch screen and/ora touchpad as the primary input control device for operation of device200, the number of physical input control devices (such as push buttons,dials, and the like) on device 200 may be reduced.

The predefined set of functions that are performed exclusively through atouch screen and/or a touchpad optionally include navigation betweenuser interfaces. In some embodiments, the touchpad, when touched by theuser, navigates device 200 to a main, home, or root menu from any userinterface that is displayed on device 200. In such embodiments, a “menubutton” is implemented using a touchpad. In some other embodiments, themenu button is a physical push button or other physical input controldevice instead of a touchpad.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating exemplary components for eventhandling in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments,memory 202 (FIG. 2A) or 470 (FIG. 4) includes event sorter 270 (e.g., inoperating system 226) and a respective application 236-1 (e.g., any ofthe aforementioned applications 237-251, 255, 480-490).

Event sorter 270 receives event information and determines theapplication 236-1 and application view 291 of application 236-1 to whichto deliver the event information. Event sorter 270 includes eventmonitor 271 and event dispatcher module 274. In some embodiments,application 236-1 includes application internal state 292, whichindicates the current application view(s) displayed on touch-sensitivedisplay 212 when the application is active or executing. In someembodiments, device/global internal state 257 is used by event sorter270 to determine which application(s) is (are) currently active, andapplication internal state 292 is used by event sorter 270 to determineapplication views 291 to which to deliver event information.

In some embodiments, application internal state 292 includes additionalinformation, such as one or more of: resume information to be used whenapplication 236-1 resumes execution, user interface state informationthat indicates information being displayed or that is ready for displayby application 236-1, a state queue for enabling the user to go back toa prior state or view of application 236-1, and a redo/undo queue ofprevious actions taken by the user.

Event monitor 271 receives event information from peripherals interface218. Event information includes information about a sub-event (e.g., auser touch on touch-sensitive display 212, as part of a multi-touchgesture). Peripherals interface 218 transmits information it receivesfrom I/O subsystem 206 or a sensor, such as proximity sensor 266,accelerometer(s) 268, and/or microphone 213 (through audio circuitry210). Information that peripherals interface 218 receives from I/Osubsystem 206 includes information from touch-sensitive display 212 or atouch-sensitive surface.

In some embodiments, event monitor 271 sends requests to the peripheralsinterface 218 at predetermined intervals. In response, peripheralsinterface 218 transmits event information. In other embodiments,peripherals interface 218 transmits event information only when there isa significant event (e.g., receiving an input above a predeterminednoise threshold and/or for more than a predetermined duration).

In some embodiments, event sorter 270 also includes a hit viewdetermination module 272 and/or an active event recognizer determinationmodule 273.

Hit view determination module 272 provides software procedures fordetermining where a sub-event has taken place within one or more viewswhen touch-sensitive display 212 displays more than one view. Views aremade up of controls and other elements that a user can see on thedisplay.

Another aspect of the user interface associated with an application is aset of views, sometimes herein called application views or userinterface windows, in which information is displayed and touch-basedgestures occur. The application views (of a respective application) inwhich a touch is detected may correspond to programmatic levels within aprogrammatic or view hierarchy of the application. For example, thelowest level view in which a touch is detected may be called the hitview, and the set of events that are recognized as proper inputs may bedetermined based, at least in part, on the hit view of the initial touchthat begins a touch-based gesture.

Hit view determination module 272 receives information related to subevents of a touch-based gesture. When an application has multiple viewsorganized in a hierarchy, hit view determination module 272 identifies ahit view as the lowest view in the hierarchy which should handle thesub-event. In most circumstances, the hit view is the lowest level viewin which an initiating sub-event occurs (e.g., the first sub-event inthe sequence of sub-events that form an event or potential event). Oncethe hit view is identified by the hit view determination module 272, thehit view typically receives all sub-events related to the same touch orinput source for which it was identified as the hit view.

Active event recognizer determination module 273 determines which viewor views within a view hierarchy should receive a particular sequence ofsub-events. In some embodiments, active event recognizer determinationmodule 273 determines that only the hit view should receive a particularsequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, active event recognizerdetermination module 273 determines that all views that include thephysical location of a sub-event are actively involved views, andtherefore determines that all actively involved views should receive aparticular sequence of sub-events. In other embodiments, even if touchsub-events were entirely confined to the area associated with oneparticular view, views higher in the hierarchy would still remain asactively involved views.

Event dispatcher module 274 dispatches the event information to an eventrecognizer (e.g., event recognizer 280). In embodiments including activeevent recognizer determination module 273, event dispatcher module 274delivers the event information to an event recognizer determined byactive event recognizer determination module 273. In some embodiments,event dispatcher module 274 stores in an event queue the eventinformation, which is retrieved by a respective event receiver 282.

In some embodiments, operating system 226 includes event sorter 270.Alternatively, application 236-1 includes event sorter 270. In yet otherembodiments, event sorter 270 is a stand-alone module, or a part ofanother module stored in memory 202, such as contact/motion module 230.

In some embodiments, application 236-1 includes a plurality of eventhandlers 290 and one or more application views 291, each of whichincludes instructions for handling touch events that occur within arespective view of the application's user interface. Each applicationview 291 of the application 236-1 includes one or more event recognizers280. Typically, a respective application view 291 includes a pluralityof event recognizers 280. In other embodiments, one or more of eventrecognizers 280 are part of a separate module, such as a user interfacekit (not shown) or a higher level object from which application 236-1inherits methods and other properties. In some embodiments, a respectiveevent handler 290 includes one or more of: data updater 276, objectupdater 277, GUI updater 278, and/or event data 279 received from eventsorter 270. Event handler 290 may utilize or call data updater 276,object updater 277, or GUI updater 278 to update the applicationinternal state 292. Alternatively, one or more of the application views291 include one or more respective event handlers 290. Also, in someembodiments, one or more of data updater 276, object updater 277, andGUI updater 278 are included in a respective application view 291.

A respective event recognizer 280 receives event information (e.g.,event data 279) from event sorter 270 and identifies an event from theevent information. Event recognizer 280 includes event receiver 282 andevent comparator 284. In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 alsoincludes at least a subset of: metadata 283, and event deliveryinstructions 288 (which may include sub-event delivery instructions).

Event receiver 282 receives event information from event sorter 270. Theevent information includes information about a sub-event, for example, atouch or a touch movement. Depending on the sub-event, the eventinformation also includes additional information, such as location ofthe sub-event. When the sub-event concerns motion of a touch, the eventinformation may also include speed and direction of the sub-event. Insome embodiments, events include rotation of the device from oneorientation to another (e.g., from a portrait orientation to a landscapeorientation, or vice versa), and the event information includescorresponding information about the current orientation (also calleddevice attitude) of the device.

Event comparator 284 compares the event information to predefined eventor sub-event definitions and, based on the comparison, determines anevent or sub event, or determines or updates the state of an event orsub-event. In some embodiments, event comparator 284 includes eventdefinitions 286. Event definitions 286 contain definitions of events(e.g., predefined sequences of sub-events), for example, event 1(287-1), event 2 (287-2), and others. In some embodiments, sub-events inan event (287) include, for example, touch begin, touch end, touchmovement, touch cancellation, and multiple touching. In one example, thedefinition for event 1 (287-1) is a double tap on a displayed object.The double tap, for example, comprises a first touch (touch begin) onthe displayed object for a predetermined phase, a first liftoff (touchend) for a predetermined phase, a second touch (touch begin) on thedisplayed object for a predetermined phase, and a second liftoff (touchend) for a predetermined phase. In another example, the definition forevent 2 (287-2) is a dragging on a displayed object. The dragging, forexample, comprises a touch (or contact) on the displayed object for apredetermined phase, a movement of the touch across touch-sensitivedisplay 212, and liftoff of the touch (touch end). In some embodiments,the event also includes information for one or more associated eventhandlers 290.

In some embodiments, event definition 287 includes a definition of anevent for a respective user-interface object. In some embodiments, eventcomparator 284 performs a hit test to determine which user-interfaceobject is associated with a sub-event. For example, in an applicationview in which three user-interface objects are displayed ontouch-sensitive display 212, when a touch is detected on touch-sensitivedisplay 212, event comparator 284 performs a hit test to determine whichof the three user-interface objects is associated with the touch(sub-event). If each displayed object is associated with a respectiveevent handler 290, the event comparator uses the result of the hit testto determine which event handler 290 should be activated. For example,event comparator 284 selects an event handler associated with thesub-event and the object triggering the hit test.

In some embodiments, the definition for a respective event (287) alsoincludes delayed actions that delay delivery of the event informationuntil after it has been determined whether the sequence of sub-eventsdoes or does not correspond to the event recognizer's event type.

When a respective event recognizer 280 determines that the series ofsub-events do not match any of the events in event definitions 286, therespective event recognizer 280 enters an event impossible, eventfailed, or event ended state, after which it disregards subsequentsub-events of the touch-based gesture. In this situation, other eventrecognizers, if any, that remain active for the hit view continue totrack and process sub-events of an ongoing touch-based gesture.

In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 includes metadata283 with configurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate howthe event delivery system should perform sub-event delivery to activelyinvolved event recognizers. In some embodiments, metadata 283 includesconfigurable properties, flags, and/or lists that indicate how eventrecognizers may interact, or are enabled to interact, with one another.In some embodiments, metadata 283 includes configurable properties,flags, and/or lists that indicate whether sub-events are delivered tovarying levels in the view or programmatic hierarchy.

In some embodiments, a respective event recognizer 280 activates eventhandler 290 associated with an event when one or more particularsub-events of an event are recognized. In some embodiments, a respectiveevent recognizer 280 delivers event information associated with theevent to event handler 290. Activating an event handler 290 is distinctfrom sending (and deferred sending) sub-events to a respective hit view.In some embodiments, event recognizer 280 throws a flag associated withthe recognized event, and event handler 290 associated with the flagcatches the flag and performs a predefined process.

In some embodiments, event delivery instructions 288 include sub-eventdelivery instructions that deliver event information about a sub-eventwithout activating an event handler. Instead, the sub-event deliveryinstructions deliver event information to event handlers associated withthe series of sub-events or to actively involved views. Event handlersassociated with the series of sub-events or with actively involved viewsreceive the event information and perform a predetermined process.

In some embodiments, data updater 276 creates and updates data used inapplication 236-1. For example, data updater 276 updates the telephonenumber used in contacts module 237, or stores a video file used in videoplayer module. In some embodiments, object updater 277 creates andupdates objects used in application 236-1. For example, object updater277 creates a new user-interface object or updates the position of auser-interface object. GUI updater 278 updates the GUI. For example, GUIupdater 278 prepares display information and sends it to graphics module232 for display on a touch-sensitive display.

In some embodiments, event handler(s) 290 includes or has access to dataupdater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278. In someembodiments, data updater 276, object updater 277, and GUI updater 278are included in a single module of a respective application 236-1 orapplication view 291. In other embodiments, they are included in two ormore software modules.

It shall be understood that the foregoing discussion regarding eventhandling of user touches on touch-sensitive displays also applies toother forms of user inputs to operate multifunction devices 200 withinput devices, not all of which are initiated on touch screens. Forexample, mouse movement and mouse button presses, optionally coordinatedwith single or multiple keyboard presses or holds; contact movementssuch as taps, drags, scrolls, etc. on touchpads; pen stylus inputs;movement of the device; oral instructions; detected eye movements;biometric inputs; and/or any combination thereof are optionally utilizedas inputs corresponding to sub-events which define an event to berecognized.

FIG. 3 illustrates a portable multifunction device 200 having a touchscreen 212 in accordance with some embodiments. The touch screenoptionally displays one or more graphics within user interface (UI) 300.In this embodiment, as well as others described below, a user is enabledto select one or more of the graphics by making a gesture on thegraphics, for example, with one or more fingers 302 (not drawn to scalein the figure) or one or more styluses 303 (not drawn to scale in thefigure). In some embodiments, selection of one or more graphics occurswhen the user breaks contact with the one or more graphics. In someembodiments, the gesture optionally includes one or more taps, one ormore swipes (from left to right, right to left, upward and/or downward),and/or a rolling of a finger (from right to left, left to right, upwardand/or downward) that has made contact with device 200. In someimplementations or circumstances, inadvertent contact with a graphicdoes not select the graphic. For example, a swipe gesture that sweepsover an application icon optionally does not select the correspondingapplication when the gesture corresponding to selection is a tap.

Device 200 may also include one or more physical buttons, such as “home”or menu button 304. As described previously, menu button 304 may be usedto navigate to any application 236 in a set of applications that may beexecuted on device 200. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the menubutton is implemented as a soft key in a GUI displayed on touch screen212.

In one embodiment, device 200 includes touch screen 212, menu button304, push button 306 for powering the device on/off and locking thedevice, volume adjustment button(s) 308, subscriber identity module(SIM) card slot 310, headset jack 312, and docking/charging externalport 224. Push button 306 is, optionally, used to turn the power on/offon the device by depressing the button and holding the button in thedepressed state for a predefined time interval; to lock the device bydepressing the button and releasing the button before the predefinedtime interval has elapsed; and/or to unlock the device or initiate anunlock process. In an alternative embodiment, device 200 also acceptsverbal input for activation or deactivation of some functions throughmicrophone 213. Device 200 also, optionally, includes one or morecontact intensity sensors 265 for detecting intensity of contacts ontouch screen 212 and/or one or more tactile output generators 267 forgenerating tactile outputs for a user of device 200.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary multifunction device with adisplay and a touch-sensitive surface in accordance with someembodiments. Device 400 need not be portable. In some embodiments,device 400 is a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a tablet computer,a multimedia player device, a navigation device, an educational device(such as a child's learning toy), a gaming system, or a control device(e.g., a home or industrial controller). Device 400 typically includesone or more processing units (CPUs) 410, one or more network or othercommunications interfaces 460, memory 470, and one or more communicationbuses 420 for interconnecting these components. Communication buses 420optionally include circuitry (sometimes called a chipset) thatinterconnects and controls communications between system components.Device 400 includes input/output (I/O) interface 430 comprising display440, which is typically a touch screen display. I/O interface 430 alsooptionally includes a keyboard and/or mouse (or other pointing device)450 and touchpad 455, tactile output generator 457 for generatingtactile outputs on device 400 (e.g., similar to tactile outputgenerator(s) 267 described above with reference to FIG. 2A), sensors 459(e.g., optical, acceleration, proximity, touch-sensitive, and/or contactintensity sensors similar to contact intensity sensor(s) 265 describedabove with reference to FIG. 2A). Memory 470 includes high-speed randomaccess memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM, or other random access solidstate memory devices; and optionally includes non-volatile memory, suchas one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storagedevices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storagedevices. Memory 470 optionally includes one or more storage devicesremotely located from CPU(s) 410. In some embodiments, memory 470 storesprograms, modules, and data structures analogous to the programs,modules, and data structures stored in memory 202 of portablemultifunction device 200 (FIG. 2A), or a subset thereof. Furthermore,memory 470 optionally stores additional programs, modules, and datastructures not present in memory 202 of portable multifunction device200. For example, memory 470 of device 400 optionally stores drawingmodule 480, presentation module 482, word processing module 484, websitecreation module 486, disk authoring module 488, and/or spreadsheetmodule 490, while memory 202 of portable multifunction device 200 (FIG.2A) optionally does not store these modules.

Each of the above-identified elements in FIG. 4 may be stored in one ormore of the previously mentioned memory devices. Each of theabove-identified modules corresponds to a set of instructions forperforming a function described above. The above-identified modules orprograms (e.g., sets of instructions) need not be implemented asseparate software programs, procedures, or modules, and thus varioussubsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise rearranged invarious embodiments. In some embodiments, memory 470 may store a subsetof the modules and data structures identified above. Furthermore, memory470 may store additional modules and data structures not describedabove.

Attention is now directed towards embodiments of user interfaces thatmay be implemented on, for example, portable multifunction device 200.

FIG. 5A illustrates an exemplary user interface for a menu ofapplications on portable multifunction device 200 in accordance withsome embodiments. Similar user interfaces may be implemented on device400. In some embodiments, user interface 500 includes the followingelements, or a subset or superset thereof:

-   -   Signal strength indicator(s) 502 for wireless communication(s),        such as cellular and Wi-Fi signals;    -   Time 504;    -   Bluetooth indicator 505;    -   Battery status indicator 506;    -   Tray 508 with icons for frequently used applications, such as:        -   Icon 516 for telephone module 238, labeled “Phone,” which            optionally includes an indicator 514 of the number of missed            calls or voicemail messages;        -   Icon 518 for e-mail client module 240, labeled “Mail,” which            optionally includes an indicator 510 of the number of unread            e-mails;        -   Icon 520 for browser module 247, labeled “Browser;” and        -   Icon 522 for video and music player module 252, also            referred to as iPod (trademark of Apple Inc.) module 252,            labeled “iPod;” and    -   Icons for other applications, such as:        -   Icon 524 for IM module 241, labeled “Messages;”        -   Icon 526 for calendar module 248, labeled “Calendar;”        -   Icon 528 for image management module 244, labeled “Photos;”        -   Icon 530 for camera module 243, labeled “Camera;”        -   Icon 532 for online video module 255, labeled “Online            Video;”        -   Icon 534 for stocks widget 249-2, labeled “Stocks;”        -   Icon 536 for map module 254, labeled “Maps;”        -   Icon 538 for weather widget 249-1, labeled “Weather;”        -   Icon 540 for alarm clock widget 249-4, labeled “Clock;”        -   Icon 542 for workout support module 242, labeled “Workout            Support;”        -   Icon 544 for notes module 253, labeled “Notes;” and        -   Icon 546 for a settings application or module, labeled            “Settings,” which provides access to settings for device 200            and its various applications 236.

It should be noted that the icon labels illustrated in FIG. 5A aremerely exemplary. For example, icon 522 for video and music playermodule 252 may optionally be labeled “Music” or “Music Player.” Otherlabels are, optionally, used for various application icons. In someembodiments, a label for a respective application icon includes a nameof an application corresponding to the respective application icon. Insome embodiments, a label for a particular application icon is distinctfrom a name of an application corresponding to the particularapplication icon.

FIG. 5B illustrates an exemplary user interface on a device (e.g.,device 400, FIG. 4) with a touch-sensitive surface 551 (e.g., a tabletor touchpad 455, FIG. 4) that is separate from the display 550 (e.g.,touch screen display 212). Device 400 also, optionally, includes one ormore contact intensity sensors (e.g., one or more of sensors 457) fordetecting intensity of contacts on touch-sensitive surface 551 and/orone or more tactile output generators 459 for generating tactile outputsfor a user of device 400.

Although some of the examples which follow will be given with referenceto inputs on touch screen display 212 (where the touch-sensitive surfaceand the display are combined), in some embodiments, the device detectsinputs on a touch-sensitive surface that is separate from the display,as shown in FIG. 5B. In some embodiments, the touch-sensitive surface(e.g., 551 in FIG. 5B) has a primary axis (e.g., 552 in FIG. 5B) thatcorresponds to a primary axis (e.g., 553 in FIG. 5B) on the display(e.g., 550). In accordance with these embodiments, the device detectscontacts (e.g., 560 and 562 in FIG. 5B) with the touch-sensitive surface551 at locations that correspond to respective locations on the display(e.g., in FIG. 5B, 560 corresponds to 568 and 562 corresponds to 570).In this way, user inputs (e.g., contacts 560 and 562, and movementsthereof) detected by the device on the touch-sensitive surface (e.g.,551 in FIG. 5B) are used by the device to manipulate the user interfaceon the display (e.g., 550 in FIG. 5B) of the multifunction device whenthe touch-sensitive surface is separate from the display. It should beunderstood that similar methods are, optionally, used for other userinterfaces described herein.

Additionally, while the following examples are given primarily withreference to finger inputs (e.g., finger contacts, finger tap gestures,finger swipe gestures), it should be understood that, in someembodiments, one or more of the finger inputs are replaced with inputfrom another input device (e.g., a mouse-based input or stylus input).For example, a swipe gesture is, optionally, replaced with a mouse click(e.g., instead of a contact) followed by movement of the cursor alongthe path of the swipe (e.g., instead of movement of the contact). Asanother example, a tap gesture is, optionally, replaced with a mouseclick while the cursor is located over the location of the tap gesture(e.g., instead of detection of the contact followed by ceasing to detectthe contact). Similarly, when multiple user inputs are simultaneouslydetected, it should be understood that multiple computer mice are,optionally, used simultaneously, or a mouse and finger contacts are,optionally, used simultaneously.

FIG. 6A illustrates exemplary personal electronic device 600. Device 600includes body 602. In some embodiments, device 600 can include some orall of the features described with respect to devices 200 and 400 (e.g.,FIGS. 2A-4B). In some embodiments, device 600 has touch-sensitivedisplay screen 604, hereafter touch screen 604. Alternatively, or inaddition to touch screen 604, device 600 has a display and atouch-sensitive surface. As with devices 200 and 400, in someembodiments, touch screen 604 (or the touch-sensitive surface) may haveone or more intensity sensors for detecting intensity of contacts (e.g.,touches) being applied. The one or more intensity sensors of touchscreen 604 (or the touch-sensitive surface) can provide output data thatrepresents the intensity of touches. The user interface of device 600can respond to touches based on their intensity, meaning that touches ofdifferent intensities can invoke different user interface operations ondevice 600.

Techniques for detecting and processing touch intensity may be found,for example, in related applications: International Patent ApplicationSerial No. PCT/US2013/040061, titled “Device, Method, and Graphical UserInterface for Displaying User Interface Objects Corresponding to anApplication,” filed May 8, 2013, and International Patent ApplicationSerial No. PCT/US2013/069483, titled “Device, Method, and Graphical UserInterface for Transitioning Between Touch Input to Display OutputRelationships,” filed Nov. 11, 2013, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

In some embodiments, device 600 has one or more input mechanisms 606 and608. Input mechanisms 606 and 608, if included, can be physical.Examples of physical input mechanisms include push buttons and rotatablemechanisms. In some embodiments, device 600 has one or more attachmentmechanisms. Such attachment mechanisms, if included, can permitattachment of device 600 with, for example, hats, eyewear, earrings,necklaces, shirts, jackets, bracelets, watch straps, chains, trousers,belts, shoes, purses, backpacks, and so forth. These attachmentmechanisms may permit device 600 to be worn by a user.

FIG. 6B depicts exemplary personal electronic device 600. In someembodiments, device 600 can include some or all of the componentsdescribed with respect to FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 4. Device 600 has bus 612that operatively couples I/O section 614 with one or more computerprocessors 616 and memory 618. I/O section 614 can be connected todisplay 604, which can have touch-sensitive component 622 and,optionally, touch-intensity sensitive component 624. In addition, I/Osection 614 can be connected with communication unit 630 for receivingapplication and operating system data, using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, nearfield communication (NFC), cellular, and/or other wireless communicationtechniques. Device 600 can include input mechanisms 606 and/or 608.Input mechanism 606 may be a rotatable input device or a depressible androtatable input device, for example. Input mechanism 608 may be abutton, in some examples.

Input mechanism 608 may be a microphone, in some examples. Personalelectronic device 600 can include various sensors, such as GPS sensor632, accelerometer 634, directional sensor 640 (e.g., compass),gyroscope 636, motion sensor 638, and/or a combination thereof, all ofwhich can be operatively connected to I/O section 614.

Memory 618 of personal electronic device 600 can be a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium, for storing computer-executableinstructions, which, when executed by one or more computer processors616, for example, can cause the computer processors to perform thetechniques described below, including process 800 (FIG. 8). Thecomputer-executable instructions can also be stored and/or transportedwithin any non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for use by orin connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, orother system that can fetch the instructions from the instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. Forpurposes of this document, a “non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium” can be any medium that can tangibly contain or storecomputer-executable instructions for use by or in connection with theinstruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium can include, but is not limited to,magnetic, optical, and/or semiconductor storages. Examples of suchstorage include magnetic disks, optical discs based on CD, DVD, orBlu-ray technologies, as well as persistent solid-state memory such asflash, solid-state drives, and the like. Personal electronic device 600is not limited to the components and configuration of FIG. 6B, but caninclude other or additional components in multiple configurations.

As used here, the term “affordance” refers to a user-interactivegraphical user interface object that may be displayed on the displayscreen of devices 200, 400, and/or 600 (FIGS. 2, 4, and 6). For example,an image (e.g., icon), a button, and text (e.g., hyperlink) may eachconstitute an affordance.

As used herein, the term “focus selector” refers to an input elementthat indicates a current part of a user interface with which a user isinteracting. In some implementations that include a cursor or otherlocation marker, the cursor acts as a “focus selector” so that when aninput (e.g., a press input) is detected on a touch-sensitive surface(e.g., touchpad 455 in FIG. 4 or touch-sensitive surface 551 in FIG. 5B)while the cursor is over a particular user interface element (e.g., abutton, window, slider or other user interface element), the particularuser interface element is adjusted in accordance with the detectedinput. In some implementations that include a touch screen display(e.g., touch-sensitive display system 212 in FIG. 2A or touch screen 212in FIG. 5A) that enables direct interaction with user interface elementson the touch screen display, a detected contact on the touch screen actsas a “focus selector” so that when an input (e.g., a press input by thecontact) is detected on the touch screen display at a location of aparticular user interface element (e.g., a button, window, slider, orother user interface element), the particular user interface element isadjusted in accordance with the detected input. In some implementations,focus is moved from one region of a user interface to another region ofthe user interface without corresponding movement of a cursor ormovement of a contact on a touch screen display (e.g., by using a tabkey or arrow keys to move focus from one button to another button); inthese implementations, the focus selector moves in accordance withmovement of focus between different regions of the user interface.Without regard to the specific form taken by the focus selector, thefocus selector is generally the user interface element (or contact on atouch screen display) that is controlled by the user so as tocommunicate the user's intended interaction with the user interface(e.g., by indicating, to the device, the element of the user interfacewith which the user is intending to interact). For example, the locationof a focus selector (e.g., a cursor, a contact, or a selection box) overa respective button while a press input is detected on thetouch-sensitive surface (e.g., a touchpad or touch screen) will indicatethat the user is intending to activate the respective button (as opposedto other user interface elements shown on a display of the device).

As used in the specification and claims, the term “characteristicintensity” of a contact refers to a characteristic of the contact basedon one or more intensities of the contact. In some embodiments, thecharacteristic intensity is based on multiple intensity samples. Thecharacteristic intensity is, optionally, based on a predefined number ofintensity samples, or a set of intensity samples collected during apredetermined time period (e.g., 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10seconds) relative to a predefined event (e.g., after detecting thecontact, prior to detecting liftoff of the contact, before or afterdetecting a start of movement of the contact, prior to detecting an endof the contact, before or after detecting an increase in intensity ofthe contact, and/or before or after detecting a decrease in intensity ofthe contact). A characteristic intensity of a contact is, optionallybased on one or more of: a maximum value of the intensities of thecontact, a mean value of the intensities of the contact, an averagevalue of the intensities of the contact, a top 10 percentile value ofthe intensities of the contact, a value at the half maximum of theintensities of the contact, a value at the 90 percent maximum of theintensities of the contact, or the like. In some embodiments, theduration of the contact is used in determining the characteristicintensity (e.g., when the characteristic intensity is an average of theintensity of the contact over time). In some embodiments, thecharacteristic intensity is compared to a set of one or more intensitythresholds to determine whether an operation has been performed by auser. For example, the set of one or more intensity thresholds mayinclude a first intensity threshold and a second intensity threshold. Inthis example, a contact with a characteristic intensity that does notexceed the first threshold results in a first operation, a contact witha characteristic intensity that exceeds the first intensity thresholdand does not exceed the second intensity threshold results in a secondoperation, and a contact with a characteristic intensity that exceedsthe second threshold results in a third operation. In some embodiments,a comparison between the characteristic intensity and one or morethresholds is used to determine whether or not to perform one or moreoperations (e.g., whether to perform a respective operation or forgoperforming the respective operation) rather than being used to determinewhether to perform a first operation or a second operation.

In some embodiments, a portion of a gesture is identified for purposesof determining a characteristic intensity. For example, atouch-sensitive surface may receive a continuous swipe contacttransitioning from a start location and reaching an end location, atwhich point the intensity of the contact increases. In this example, thecharacteristic intensity of the contact at the end location may be basedon only a portion of the continuous swipe contact, and not the entireswipe contact (e.g., only the portion of the swipe contact at the endlocation). In some embodiments, a smoothing algorithm may be applied tothe intensities of the swipe contact prior to determining thecharacteristic intensity of the contact. For example, the smoothingalgorithm optionally includes one or more of: an unweightedsliding-average smoothing algorithm, a triangular smoothing algorithm, amedian filter smoothing algorithm, and/or an exponential smoothingalgorithm. In some circumstances, these smoothing algorithms eliminatenarrow spikes or dips in the intensities of the swipe contact forpurposes of determining a characteristic intensity.

The intensity of a contact on the touch-sensitive surface may becharacterized relative to one or more intensity thresholds, such as acontact-detection intensity threshold, a light press intensitythreshold, a deep press intensity threshold, and/or one or more otherintensity thresholds. In some embodiments, the light press intensitythreshold corresponds to an intensity at which the device will performoperations typically associated with clicking a button of a physicalmouse or a trackpad. In some embodiments, the deep press intensitythreshold corresponds to an intensity at which the device will performoperations that are different from operations typically associated withclicking a button of a physical mouse or a trackpad. In someembodiments, when a contact is detected with a characteristic intensitybelow the light press intensity threshold (e.g., and above a nominalcontact-detection intensity threshold below which the contact is nolonger detected), the device will move a focus selector in accordancewith movement of the contact on the touch-sensitive surface withoutperforming an operation associated with the light press intensitythreshold or the deep press intensity threshold. Generally, unlessotherwise stated, these intensity thresholds are consistent betweendifferent sets of user interface figures.

An increase of characteristic intensity of the contact from an intensitybelow the light press intensity threshold to an intensity between thelight press intensity threshold and the deep press intensity thresholdis sometimes referred to as a “light press” input. An increase ofcharacteristic intensity of the contact from an intensity below the deeppress intensity threshold to an intensity above the deep press intensitythreshold is sometimes referred to as a “deep press” input. An increaseof characteristic intensity of the contact from an intensity below thecontact-detection intensity threshold to an intensity between thecontact-detection intensity threshold and the light press intensitythreshold is sometimes referred to as detecting the contact on thetouch-surface. A decrease of characteristic intensity of the contactfrom an intensity above the contact-detection intensity threshold to anintensity below the contact-detection intensity threshold is sometimesreferred to as detecting liftoff of the contact from the touch-surface.In some embodiments, the contact-detection intensity threshold is zero.In some embodiments, the contact-detection intensity threshold isgreater than zero.

In some embodiments described herein, one or more operations areperformed in response to detecting a gesture that includes a respectivepress input or in response to detecting the respective press inputperformed with a respective contact (or a plurality of contacts), wherethe respective press input is detected based at least in part ondetecting an increase in intensity of the contact (or plurality ofcontacts) above a press-input intensity threshold. In some embodiments,the respective operation is performed in response to detecting theincrease in intensity of the respective contact above the press-inputintensity threshold (e.g., a “down stroke” of the respective pressinput). In some embodiments, the press input includes an increase inintensity of the respective contact above the press-input intensitythreshold and a subsequent decrease in intensity of the contact belowthe press-input intensity threshold, and the respective operation isperformed in response to detecting the subsequent decrease in intensityof the respective contact below the press-input threshold (e.g., an “upstroke” of the respective press input).

In some embodiments, the device employs intensity hysteresis to avoidaccidental inputs sometimes termed “jitter,” where the device defines orselects a hysteresis intensity threshold with a predefined relationshipto the press-input intensity threshold (e.g., the hysteresis intensitythreshold is X intensity units lower than the press-input intensitythreshold or the hysteresis intensity threshold is 75%, 90%, or somereasonable proportion of the press-input intensity threshold). Thus, insome embodiments, the press input includes an increase in intensity ofthe respective contact above the press-input intensity threshold and asubsequent decrease in intensity of the contact below the hysteresisintensity threshold that corresponds to the press-input intensitythreshold, and the respective operation is performed in response todetecting the subsequent decrease in intensity of the respective contactbelow the hysteresis intensity threshold (e.g., an “up stroke” of therespective press input). Similarly, in some embodiments, the press inputis detected only when the device detects an increase in intensity of thecontact from an intensity at or below the hysteresis intensity thresholdto an intensity at or above the press-input intensity threshold and,optionally, a subsequent decrease in intensity of the contact to anintensity at or below the hysteresis intensity, and the respectiveoperation is performed in response to detecting the press input (e.g.,the increase in intensity of the contact or the decrease in intensity ofthe contact, depending on the circumstances).

For ease of explanation, the descriptions of operations performed inresponse to a press input associated with a press-input intensitythreshold or in response to a gesture including the press input are,optionally, triggered in response to detecting either: an increase inintensity of a contact above the press-input intensity threshold, anincrease in intensity of a contact from an intensity below thehysteresis intensity threshold to an intensity above the press-inputintensity threshold, a decrease in intensity of the contact below thepress-input intensity threshold, and/or a decrease in intensity of thecontact below the hysteresis intensity threshold corresponding to thepress-input intensity threshold. Additionally, in examples where anoperation is described as being performed in response to detecting adecrease in intensity of a contact below the press-input intensitythreshold, the operation is, optionally, performed in response todetecting a decrease in intensity of the contact below a hysteresisintensity threshold corresponding to, and lower than, the press-inputintensity threshold.

3. Digital Assistant System

FIG. 7A illustrates a block diagram of digital assistant system 700 inaccordance with various examples. In some examples, digital assistantsystem 700 can be implemented on a standalone computer system. In someexamples, digital assistant system 700 can be distributed acrossmultiple computers. In some examples, some of the modules and functionsof the digital assistant can be divided into a server portion and aclient portion, where the client portion resides on one or more userdevices (e.g., devices 104, 122, 200, 400, or 600) and communicates withthe server portion (e.g., server system 108) through one or morenetworks, e.g., as shown in FIG. 1. In some examples, digital assistantsystem 700 can be an implementation of server system 108 (and/or DAserver 106) shown in FIG. 1. It should be noted that digital assistantsystem 700 is only one example of a digital assistant system, and thatdigital assistant system 700 can have more or fewer components thanshown, may combine two or more components, or may have a differentconfiguration or arrangement of the components. The various componentsshown in FIG. 7A can be implemented in hardware, software instructionsfor execution by one or more processors, firmware, including one or moresignal processing and/or application specific integrated circuits, or acombination thereof.

Digital assistant system 700 can include memory 702, one or moreprocessors 704, input/output (I/O) interface 706, and networkcommunications interface 708. These components can communicate with oneanother over one or more communication buses or signal lines 710.

In some examples, memory 702 can include a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium, such as high-speed random access memory and/ora non-volatile computer-readable storage medium (e.g., one or moremagnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or othernon-volatile solid-state memory devices).

In some examples, I/O interface 706 can couple input/output devices 716of digital assistant system 700, such as displays, keyboards, touchscreens, and microphones, to user interface module 722. I/O interface706, in conjunction with user interface module 722, can receive userinputs (e.g., voice input, keyboard inputs, touch inputs, etc.) andprocesses them accordingly. In some examples, e.g., when the digitalassistant is implemented on a standalone user device, digital assistantsystem 700 can include any of the components and I/O communicationinterfaces described with respect to devices 200, 400, or 600 in FIGS.2A, 4, 6A-B, respectively. In some examples, digital assistant system700 can represent the server portion of a digital assistantimplementation, and can interact with the user through a client-sideportion residing on a user device (e.g., devices 104, 200, 400, or 600).

In some examples, the network communications interface 708 can includewired communication port(s) 712 and/or wireless transmission andreception circuitry 714. The wired communication port(s) can receive andsend communication signals via one or more wired interfaces, e.g.,Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), FIREWIRE, etc. The wirelesscircuitry 714 can receive and send RF signals and/or optical signalsfrom/to communications networks and other communications devices. Thewireless communications can use any of a plurality of communicationsstandards, protocols, and technologies, such as GSM, EDGE, CDMA, TDMA,Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, VoIP, Wi-MAX, or any other suitable communicationprotocol. Network communications interface 708 can enable communicationbetween digital assistant system 700 with networks, such as theInternet, an intranet, and/or a wireless network, such as a cellulartelephone network, a wireless local area network (LAN), and/or ametropolitan area network (MAN), and other devices.

In some examples, memory 702, or the computer-readable storage media ofmemory 702, can store programs, modules, instructions, and datastructures including all or a subset of: operating system 718,communications module 720, user interface module 722, one or moreapplications 724, and digital assistant module 726. In particular,memory 702, or the computer-readable storage media of memory 702, canstore instructions for performing process 800, described below. One ormore processors 704 can execute these programs, modules, andinstructions, and reads/writes from/to the data structures.

Operating system 718 (e.g., Darwin, RTXC, LINUX, UNIX, iOS, OS X,WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system such as VxWorks) can includevarious software components and/or drivers for controlling and managinggeneral system tasks (e.g., memory management, storage device control,power management, etc.) and facilitates communications between varioushardware, firmware, and software components.

Communications module 720 can facilitate communications between digitalassistant system 700 with other devices over network communicationsinterface 708. For example, communications module 720 can communicatewith RF circuitry 208 of electronic devices such as devices 200, 400,and 600 shown in FIG. 2A, 4, 6A-B, respectively. Communications module720 can also include various components for handling data received bywireless circuitry 714 and/or wired communications port 712.

User interface module 722 can receive commands and/or inputs from a uservia I/O interface 706 (e.g., from a keyboard, touch screen, pointingdevice, controller, and/or microphone), and generate user interfaceobjects on a display. User interface module 722 can also prepare anddeliver outputs (e.g., speech, sound, animation, text, icons,vibrations, haptic feedback, light, etc.) to the user via the I/Ointerface 706 (e.g., through displays, audio channels, speakers,touch-pads, etc.).

Applications 724 can include programs and/or modules that are configuredto be executed by one or more processors 704. For example, if thedigital assistant system is implemented on a standalone user device,applications 724 can include user applications, such as games, acalendar application, a navigation application, or an email application.If digital assistant system 700 is implemented on a server, applications724 can include resource management applications, diagnosticapplications, or scheduling applications, for example.

Memory 702 can also store digital assistant module 726 (or the serverportion of a digital assistant). In some examples, digital assistantmodule 726 can include the following sub-modules, or a subset orsuperset thereof: input/output processing module 728, speech-to-text(STT) processing module 730, natural language processing module 732,dialogue flow processing module 734, task flow processing module 736,service processing module 738, and speech synthesis module 740. Each ofthese modules can have access to one or more of the following systems ordata and models of the digital assistant module 726, or a subset orsuperset thereof: ontology 760, vocabulary index 744, user data 748,task flow models 754, service models 756, and ASR systems.

In some examples, using the processing modules, data, and modelsimplemented in digital assistant module 726, the digital assistant canperform at least some of the following: converting speech input intotext; identifying a user's intent expressed in a natural language inputreceived from the user; actively eliciting and obtaining informationneeded to fully infer the user's intent (e.g., by disambiguating words,games, intentions, etc.); determining the task flow for fulfilling theinferred intent; and executing the task flow to fulfill the inferredintent.

In some examples, as shown in FIG. 7B, I/O processing module 728 caninteract with the user through I/O devices 716 in FIG. 7A or with a userdevice (e.g., devices 104, 200, 400, or 600) through networkcommunications interface 708 in FIG. 7A to obtain user input (e.g., aspeech input) and to provide responses (e.g., as speech outputs) to theuser input. I/O processing module 728 can optionally obtain contextualinformation associated with the user input from the user device, alongwith or shortly after the receipt of the user input. The contextualinformation can include user-specific data, vocabulary, and/orpreferences relevant to the user input. In some examples, the contextualinformation also includes software and hardware states of the userdevice at the time the user request is received, and/or informationrelated to the surrounding environment of the user at the time that theuser request was received. In some examples, I/O processing module 728can also send follow-up questions to, and receive answers from, the userregarding the user request. When a user request is received by I/Oprocessing module 728 and the user request can include speech input, I/Oprocessing module 728 can forward the speech input to STT processingmodule 730 (or speech recognizer) for speech-to-text conversions.

STT processing module 730 can include one or more ASR systems. The oneor more ASR systems can process the speech input that is receivedthrough I/O processing module 728 to produce a recognition result. EachASR system can include a front-end speech pre-processor. The front-endspeech pre-processor can extract representative features from the speechinput. For example, the front-end speech pre-processor can perform aFourier transform on the speech input to extract spectral features thatcharacterize the speech input as a sequence of representativemulti-dimensional vectors. Further, each ASR system can include one ormore speech recognition models (e.g., acoustic models and/or languagemodels) and can implement one or more speech recognition engines.Examples of speech recognition models can include Hidden Markov Models,Gaussian-Mixture Models, Deep Neural Network Models, n-gram languagemodels, and other statistical models. Examples of speech recognitionengines can include the dynamic time warping based engines and weightedfinite-state transducers (WFST) based engines. The one or more speechrecognition models and the one or more speech recognition engines can beused to process the extracted representative features of the front-endspeech pre-processor to produce intermediate recognitions results (e.g.,phonemes, phonemic strings, and sub-words), and ultimately, textrecognition results (e.g., words, word strings, or sequence of tokens).In some examples, the speech input can be processed at least partiallyby a third-party service or on the user's device (e.g., device 104, 200,400, or 600) to produce the recognition result. Once STT processingmodule 730 produces recognition results containing a text string (e.g.,words, or sequence of words, or sequence of tokens), the recognitionresult can be passed to natural language processing module 732 forintent deduction.

More details on the speech-to-text processing are described in U.S.Utility application Ser. No. 13/236,942 for “Consolidating SpeechRecognition Results,” filed on Sep. 20, 2011, the entire disclosure ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

In some examples, STT processing module 730 can include and/or access avocabulary of recognizable words via phonetic alphabet conversion module731. Each vocabulary word can be associated with one or more candidatepronunciations of the word represented in a speech recognition phoneticalphabet. In particular, the vocabulary of recognizable words caninclude a word that is associated with a plurality of candidatepronunciations. For example, the vocabulary may include the word“tomato” that is associated with the candidate pronunciations of /

/ and /

/. Further, vocabulary words can be associated with custom candidatepronunciations that are based on previous speech inputs from the user.Such custom candidate pronunciations can be stored in STT processingmodule 730 and can be associated with a particular user via the user'sprofile on the device. In some examples, the candidate pronunciationsfor words can be determined based on the spelling of the word and one ormore linguistic and/or phonetic rules. In some examples, the candidatepronunciations can be manually generated, e.g., based on known canonicalpronunciations.

In some examples, the candidate pronunciations can be ranked based onthe commonness of the candidate pronunciation. For example, thecandidate pronunciation /

/ can be ranked higher than /

/, because the former is a more commonly used pronunciation (e.g., amongall users, for users in a particular geographical region, or for anyother appropriate subset of users). In some examples, candidatepronunciations can be ranked based on whether the candidatepronunciation is a custom candidate pronunciation associated with theuser. For example, custom candidate pronunciations can be ranked higherthan canonical candidate pronunciations. This can be useful forrecognizing proper nouns having a unique pronunciation that deviatesfrom canonical pronunciation. In some examples, candidate pronunciationscan be associated with one or more speech characteristics, such asgeographic origin, nationality, or ethnicity. For example, the candidatepronunciation /

/ can be associated with the United States, whereas the candidatepronunciation /

/ can be associated with Great Britain. Further, the rank of thecandidate pronunciation can be based on one or more characteristics(e.g., geographic origin, nationality, ethnicity, etc.) of the userstored in the user's profile on the device. For example, it can bedetermined from the user's profile that the user is associated with theUnited States. Based on the user being associated with the UnitedStates, the candidate pronunciation /

/ (associated with the United States) can be ranked higher than thecandidate pronunciation /

/ (associated with Great Britain). In some examples, one of the rankedcandidate pronunciations can be selected as a predicted pronunciation(e.g., the most likely pronunciation).

When a speech input is received, STT processing module 730 can be usedto determine the phonemes corresponding to the speech input (e.g., usingan acoustic model), and then attempt to determine words that match thephonemes (e.g., using a language model). For example, if STT processingmodule 730 can first identify the sequence of phonemes /

/ corresponding to a portion of the speech input, it can then determine,based on vocabulary index 744, that this sequence corresponds to theword “tomato.”

In some examples, STT processing module 730 can use approximate matchingtechniques to determine words in an utterance. Thus, for example, theSTT processing module 730 can determine that the sequence of phonemes /

/ corresponds to the word “tomato,” even if that particular sequence ofphonemes is not one of the candidate sequence of phonemes for that word.

Natural language processing module 732 (“natural language processor”) ofthe digital assistant can take the sequence of words or tokens (“tokensequence”) generated by STT processing module 730, and attempt toassociate the token sequence with one or more “actionable intents”recognized by the digital assistant. An “actionable intent” canrepresent a task that can be performed by the digital assistant, and canhave an associated task flow implemented in task flow models 754. Theassociated task flow can be a series of programmed actions and stepsthat the digital assistant takes in order to perform the task. The scopeof a digital assistant's capabilities can be dependent on the number andvariety of task flows that have been implemented and stored in task flowmodels 754, or in other words, on the number and variety of “actionableintents” that the digital assistant recognizes. The effectiveness of thedigital assistant, however, can also be dependent on the assistant'sability to infer the correct “actionable intent(s)” from the userrequest expressed in natural language.

In some examples, in addition to the sequence of words or tokensobtained from STT processing module 730, natural language processingmodule 732 can also receive contextual information associated with theuser request, e.g., from I/O processing module 728. The natural languageprocessing module 732 can optionally use the contextual information toclarify, supplement, and/or further define the information contained inthe token sequence received from STT processing module 730. Thecontextual information can include, for example, user preferences,hardware, and/or software states of the user device, sensor informationcollected before, during, or shortly after the user request, priorinteractions (e.g., dialogue) between the digital assistant and theuser, and the like. As described herein, contextual information can bedynamic, and can change with time, location, content of the dialogue,and other factors.

In some examples, the natural language processing can be based on, e.g.,ontology 760. Ontology 760 can be a hierarchical structure containingmany nodes, each node representing either an “actionable intent” or a“property” relevant to one or more of the “actionable intents” or other“properties.” As noted above, an “actionable intent” can represent atask that the digital assistant is capable of performing, i.e., it is“actionable” or can be acted on. A “property” can represent a parameterassociated with an actionable intent or a sub-aspect of anotherproperty. A linkage between an actionable intent node and a propertynode in ontology 760 can define how a parameter represented by theproperty node pertains to the task represented by the actionable intentnode.

In some examples, ontology 760 can be made up of actionable intent nodesand property nodes. Within ontology 760, each actionable intent node canbe linked to one or more property nodes either directly or through oneor more intermediate property nodes. Similarly, each property node canbe linked to one or more actionable intent nodes either directly orthrough one or more intermediate property nodes. For example, as shownin FIG. 7C, ontology 760 can include a “restaurant reservation” node(i.e., an actionable intent node). Property nodes “restaurant,”“date/time” (for the reservation), and “party size” can each be directlylinked to the actionable intent node (i.e., the “restaurant reservation”node).

In addition, property nodes “cuisine,” “price range,” “phone number,”and “location” can be sub-nodes of the property node “restaurant,” andcan each be linked to the “restaurant reservation” node (i.e., theactionable intent node) through the intermediate property node“restaurant.” For another example, as shown in FIG. 7C, ontology 760 canalso include a “set reminder” node (i.e., another actionable intentnode). Property nodes “date/time” (for setting the reminder) and“subject” (for the reminder) can each be linked to the “set reminder”node. Since the property “date/time” can be relevant to both the task ofmaking a restaurant reservation and the task of setting a reminder, theproperty node “date/time” can be linked to both the “restaurantreservation” node and the “set reminder” node in ontology 760.

An actionable intent node, along with its linked concept nodes, can bedescribed as a “domain.” In the present discussion, each domain can beassociated with a respective actionable intent, and refers to the groupof nodes (and the relationships there between) associated with theparticular actionable intent. For example, ontology 760 shown in FIG. 7Ccan include an example of restaurant reservation domain 762 and anexample of reminder domain 764 within ontology 760. The restaurantreservation domain includes the actionable intent node “restaurantreservation,” property nodes “restaurant,” “date/time,” and “partysize,” and sub-property nodes “cuisine,” “price range,” “phone number,”and “location.” Reminder domain 764 can include the actionable intentnode “set reminder,” and property nodes “subject” and “date/time.” Insome examples, ontology 760 can be made up of many domains. Each domaincan share one or more property nodes with one or more other domains. Forexample, the “date/time” property node can be associated with manydifferent domains (e.g., a scheduling domain, a travel reservationdomain, a movie ticket domain, etc.), in addition to restaurantreservation domain 762 and reminder domain 764.

While FIG. 7C illustrates two example domains within ontology 760, otherdomains can include, for example, “find a movie,” “initiate a phonecall,” “find directions,” “schedule a meeting,” “send a message,” and“provide an answer to a question,” “read a list,” “providing navigationinstructions,” “provide instructions for a task” and so on. A “send amessage” domain can be associated with a “send a message” actionableintent node, and may further include property nodes such as“recipient(s),” “message type,” and “message body.” The property node“recipient” can be further defined, for example, by the sub-propertynodes such as “recipient name” and “message address.”

In some examples, ontology 760 can include all the domains (and henceactionable intents) that the digital assistant is capable ofunderstanding and acting upon. In some examples, ontology 760 can bemodified, such as by adding or removing entire domains or nodes, or bymodifying relationships between the nodes within the ontology 760.

In some examples, nodes associated with multiple related actionableintents can be clustered under a “super domain” in ontology 760. Forexample, a “travel” super-domain can include a cluster of property nodesand actionable intent nodes related to travel. The actionable intentnodes related to travel can include “airline reservation,” “hotelreservation,” “car rental,” “get directions,” “find points of interest,”and so on. The actionable intent nodes under the same super domain(e.g., the “travel” super domain) can have many property nodes incommon. For example, the actionable intent nodes for “airlinereservation,” “hotel reservation,” “car rental,” “get directions,” and“find points of interest” can share one or more of the property nodes“start location,” “destination,” “departure date/time,” “arrivaldate/time,” and “party size.”

In some examples, each node in ontology 760 can be associated with a setof words and/or phrases that are relevant to the property or actionableintent represented by the node. The respective set of words and/orphrases associated with each node can be the so-called “vocabulary”associated with the node. The respective set of words and/or phrasesassociated with each node can be stored in vocabulary index 744 inassociation with the property or actionable intent represented by thenode. For example, returning to FIG. 7B, the vocabulary associated withthe node for the property of “restaurant” can include words such as“food,” “drinks,” “cuisine,” “hungry,” “eat,” “pizza,” “fast food,”“meal,” and so on. For another example, the vocabulary associated withthe node for the actionable intent of “initiate a phone call” caninclude words and phrases such as “call,” “phone,” “dial,” “ring,” “callthis number,” “make a call to,” and so on. The vocabulary index 744 canoptionally include words and phrases in different languages.

Natural language processing module 732 can receive the token sequence(e.g., a text string) from STT processing module 730, and determine whatnodes are implicated by the words in the token sequence. In someexamples, if a word or phrase in the token sequence is found to beassociated with one or more nodes in ontology 760 (via vocabulary index744), the word or phrase can “trigger” or “activate” those nodes. Basedon the quantity and/or relative importance of the activated nodes,natural language processing module 732 can select one of the actionableintents as the task that the user intended the digital assistant toperform. In some examples, the domain that has the most “triggered”nodes can be selected. In some examples, the domain having the highestconfidence value (e.g., based on the relative importance of its varioustriggered nodes) can be selected. In some examples, the domain can beselected based on a combination of the number and the importance of thetriggered nodes. In some examples, additional factors are considered inselecting the node as well, such as whether the digital assistant haspreviously correctly interpreted a similar request from a user.

User data 748 can include user-specific information, such asuser-specific vocabulary, user preferences, user address, user's defaultand secondary languages, user's contact list, and other short-term orlong-term information for each user. In some examples, natural languageprocessing module 732 can use the user-specific information tosupplement the information contained in the user input to further definethe user intent. For example, for a user request “invite my friends tomy birthday party,” natural language processing module 732 can be ableto access user data 748 to determine who the “friends” are and when andwhere the “birthday party” would be held, rather than requiring the userto provide such information explicitly in his/her request.

Other details of searching an ontology based on a token string isdescribed in U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 12/341,743 for “Methodand Apparatus for Searching Using An Active Ontology,” filed Dec. 22,2008, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference.

In some examples, once natural language processing module 732 identifiesan actionable intent (or domain) based on the user request, naturallanguage processing module 732 can generate a structured query torepresent the identified actionable intent. In some examples, thestructured query can include parameters for one or more nodes within thedomain for the actionable intent, and at least some of the parametersare populated with the specific information and requirements specifiedin the user request. For example, the user may say “Make me a dinnerreservation at a sushi place at 7.” In this case, natural languageprocessing module 732 can be able to correctly identify the actionableintent to be “restaurant reservation” based on the user input. Accordingto the ontology, a structured query for a “restaurant reservation”domain may include parameters such as {Cuisine}, {Time}, {Date}, {PartySize}, and the like. In some examples, based on the speech input and thetext derived from the speech input using STT processing module 730,natural language processing module 732 can generate a partial structuredquery for the restaurant reservation domain, where the partialstructured query includes the parameters {Cuisine=“Sushi”} and {Time=“7pm”}. However, in this example, the user's utterance containsinsufficient information to complete the structured query associatedwith the domain. Therefore, other necessary parameters such as {PartySize} and {Date} may not be specified in the structured query based onthe information currently available. In some examples, natural languageprocessing module 732 can populate some parameters of the structuredquery with received contextual information. For example, in someexamples, if the user requested a sushi restaurant “near me,” naturallanguage processing module 732 can populate a {location} parameter inthe structured query with GPS coordinates from the user device.

In some examples, natural language processing module 732 can pass thegenerated structured query (including any completed parameters) to taskflow processing module 736 (“task flow processor”). Task flow processingmodule 736 can be configured to receive the structured query fromnatural language processing module 732, complete the structured query,if necessary, and perform the actions required to “complete” the user'sultimate request. In some examples, the various procedures necessary tocomplete these tasks can be provided in task flow models 754. In someexamples, task flow models 754 can include procedures for obtainingadditional information from the user and task flows for performingactions associated with the actionable intent.

As described above, in order to complete a structured query, task flowprocessing module 736 may need to initiate additional dialogue with theuser in order to obtain additional information, and/or disambiguatepotentially ambiguous utterances. When such interactions are necessary,task flow processing module 736 can invoke dialogue flow processingmodule 734 to engage in a dialogue with the user. In some examples,dialogue flow processing module 734 can determine how (and/or when) toask the user for the additional information and receives and processesthe user responses. The questions can be provided to and answers can bereceived from the users through I/O processing module 728. In someexamples, dialogue flow processing module 734 can present dialogueoutput to the user via audio and/or visual output, and receives inputfrom the user via spoken or physical (e.g., clicking) responses.Continuing with the example above, when task flow processing module 736invokes dialogue flow processing module 734 to determine the “partysize” and “date” information for the structured query associated withthe domain “restaurant reservation,” dialogue flow processing module 734can generate questions such as “For how many people?” and “On whichday?” to pass to the user. Once answers are received from the user,dialogue flow processing module 734 can then populate the structuredquery with the missing information, or pass the information to task flowprocessing module 736 to complete the missing information from thestructured query.

Once task flow processing module 736 has completed the structured queryfor an actionable intent, task flow processing module 736 can proceed toperform the ultimate task associated with the actionable intent.Accordingly, task flow processing module 736 can execute the steps andinstructions in the task flow model according to the specific parameterscontained in the structured query. For example, the task flow model forthe actionable intent of “restaurant reservation” can include steps andinstructions for contacting a restaurant and actually requesting areservation for a particular party size at a particular time. Forexample, using a structured query such as: {restaurant reservation,restaurant=ABC Café, date=Mar. 12, 2012, time=7 pm, party size=5}, taskflow processing module 736 can perform the steps of: (1) logging onto aserver of the ABC Café or a restaurant reservation system such asOPENTABLE®, (2) entering the date, time, and party size information in aform on the website, (3) submitting the form, and (4) making a calendarentry for the reservation in the user's calendar.

In some examples, task flow processing module 736 can employ theassistance of service processing module 738 (“service processingmodule”) to complete a task requested in the user input or to provide aninformational answer requested in the user input. For example, serviceprocessing module 738 can act on behalf of task flow processing module736 to make a phone call, set a calendar entry, invoke a map search,invoke or interact with other user applications installed on the userdevice, and invoke or interact with third-party services (e.g., arestaurant reservation portal, a social networking website, a bankingportal, etc.). In some examples, the protocols and applicationprogramming interfaces (API) required by each service can be specifiedby a respective service model among service models 756. Serviceprocessing module 738 can access the appropriate service model for aservice and generate requests for the service in accordance with theprotocols and APIs required by the service according to the servicemodel.

For example, if a restaurant has enabled an online reservation service,the restaurant can submit a service model specifying the necessaryparameters for making a reservation and the APIs for communicating thevalues of the necessary parameter to the online reservation service.When requested by task flow processing module 736, service processingmodule 738 can establish a network connection with the onlinereservation service using the web address stored in the service model,and send the necessary parameters of the reservation (e.g., time, date,party size) to the online reservation interface in a format according tothe API of the online reservation service.

In some examples, natural language processing module 732, dialogue flowprocessing module 734, and task flow processing module 736 can be usedcollectively and iteratively to infer and define the user's intent,obtain information to further clarify and refine the user intent, andfinally generate a response (i.e., an output to the user, or thecompletion of a task) to fulfill the user's intent. The generatedresponse can be a dialogue response to the speech input that at leastpartially fulfills the user's intent. Further, in some examples, thegenerated response can be output as a speech output. In these examples,the generated response can be sent to speech synthesis module 740 (e.g.,speech synthesizer) where it can be processed to synthesize the dialogueresponse in speech form. In yet other examples, the generated responsecan be data content relevant to satisfying a user request in the speechinput.

Speech synthesis module 740 can be configured to synthesize speechoutputs for presentation to the user. Speech synthesis module 740synthesizes speech outputs based on text provided by the digitalassistant. For example, the generated dialogue response can be in theform of a text string. Speech synthesis module 740 can convert the textstring to an audible speech output. Speech synthesis module 740 can useany appropriate speech synthesis technique in order to generate speechoutputs from text, including, but not limited, to concatenativesynthesis, unit selection synthesis, diphone synthesis, domain-specificsynthesis, formant synthesis, articulatory synthesis, hidden Markovmodel (HMM) based synthesis, and sinewave synthesis. In some examples,speech synthesis module 740 can be configured to synthesize individualwords based on phonemic strings corresponding to the words. For example,a phonemic string can be associated with a word in the generateddialogue response. The phonemic string can be stored in metadataassociated with the word. Speech synthesis model 740 can be configuredto directly process the phonemic string in the metadata to synthesizethe word in speech form.

In some examples, instead of (or in addition to) using speech synthesismodule 740, speech synthesis can be performed on a remote device (e.g.,the server system 108), and the synthesized speech can be sent to theuser device for output to the user. For example, this can occur in someimplementations where outputs for a digital assistant are generated at aserver system. And because server systems generally have more processingpower or resources than a user device, it can be possible to obtainhigher quality speech outputs than would be practical with client-sidesynthesis.

Additional details on digital assistants can be found in the U.S.Utility application Ser. No. 12/987,982, entitled “Intelligent AutomatedAssistant,” filed Jan. 10, 2011, and U.S. Utility application Ser. No.13/251,088, entitled “Generating and Processing Task Items ThatRepresent Tasks to Perform,” filed Sep. 30, 2011, the entire disclosuresof which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 8 illustrates exemplary process 800 for handling multipleactionable commands in a single user utterance according to variousexamples. Process 800 can, for example, be executed on processingmodules 114 of server system 108 discussed above with reference toFIG. 1. In other examples, process 800 can be executed on processor 704of digital assistant system 700 discussed above with reference to FIG.7. In still other examples, processing modules 114 of server system 108and processor 704 of digital assistant system 700 can be used togetherto execute some or all of process 800. At block 802, speech input can bereceived from a user (e.g., from microphone 213 of FIG. 2). In someexamples, the speech input can be directed to a virtual assistant, andcan include one actionable command (e.g., “What's the weather going tobe today?”) or multiple actionable commands (e.g., “Navigate toJessica's house and send her a message that I'm on my way.”). Anactionable command as used herein can include any task, process, query,action, request, or the like that a virtual assistant can perform,respond to, or otherwise handle. For example, an actionable command caninclude a query about a stock price, a request to send a message, acommand to provide navigation services, a command to initiate a phonecall, or the like.

In some examples, a user can control the capture of a multi-part commandby signaling with a button, touchscreen interface, or the like. Forexample, to cause a user's device to continue listening for additionalcommands, a user can push and hold a button (e.g., of user device 104)while speaking, and can release the button after finishing as manycommands as the user desires to speak. In other examples, a user devicecan continue listening while speech continues, or can include analways-listening function that monitors audio continuously (e.g., at alltimes or for some extended duration).

A multi-part command within a single utterance can include any number ofcommands with any number of arguments. For example, a user can requestmultiple actions associated with the same subject (e.g., email a pictureto a friend, save the picture to memory, and set the picture as thewallpaper on a device display). In another example, a user can requestmultiple actions associated with different subjects (e.g., email apicture to a friend, send a message to a relative saying “I'll be theresoon,” dismiss a calendar notification, and remind the user of aparticular task in an hour). Some speech input can also mix commandswith dictation, as in the example of dictating a message to be sentwhile requesting other actions in the same utterance. Speech input witha single utterance can thus include any number of commands associatedwith any number of arguments.

At block 804, a text string can be generated based on the speech inputusing a speech transcription process. Any of a variety of speechtranscription approaches can be used. In addition, in some examples,multiple possible transcriptions can be generated and processed insequence or simultaneously to identify the best possible match (e.g.,the most likely match).

At block 806, the text string (or multiple candidate text strings) canbe parsed into at least a first candidate substring and a secondcandidate substring. In one example, any speech input can be parsed intoany number of candidate substrings to test for multi-part commands. Inother examples, parsing into multiple candidate substrings can be donebased on the length of the speech input, a user indication (e.g.,holding a button down while speaking multiple commands), identificationof multiple imperative verbs, or the like.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary parsed multi-part voice command. Userspeech 920 can include the transcription of a single utterance saying,“Navigate to Jessica's house and send her a message that I'm on my way.”In one example, user speech 920 can be parsed into two substrings: firstcandidate substring 922 and second candidate substring 924. Such parsingcan be done in a variety of ways. For example, domain keywords can beidentified in the text string, and the string can be parsed based ontheir location. In the example of FIG. 9, the word “navigate” cancorrespond to a virtual assistant domain for providing maps,turn-by-turn navigation instructions, or other navigation assistance toa user. The word “send” can correspond to a messaging domain or multiplevirtual assistant domains (e.g., email, instant messages, text messages,messaging applications, or the like). The word “message” can likewisecorrespond to multiple virtual assistant domains. In some instances, thecombination of “send” and “message” within a certain number of words ofone another can indicate a likely matching virtual assistant domain.

Based on the positions of the identified domain keywords, user speech920 can be split into first candidate substring 922 beginning with thekeyword “Navigate” and ending prior to the conjunction “and,” and secondcandidate substring 924 beginning with the keyword “send” and endingwith the end of the string. In other examples, the conjunction “and” canbe included within either candidate substring or both candidatesubstrings. Various other domain keywords can be used in a similarmanner to parse a string. For example, a weather domain might beassociated with keywords or key phrases like “weather,” “temperature,”“how cold,” “how hot,” “rain,” etc. Similarly, a phone domain might beassociated with keywords “call,” “dial,” etc. A calendar domain might beassociated with keywords or key phrases like “meeting,” “set up ameeting,” “meet with,” “new appointment,” “schedule,” etc. A reminderdomain might be associated with keywords or key phrases like “remind,”“reminder,” “set a reminder,” “remind me,” etc. It should be understoodthat various other domains can have a variety of associated keywords orkey phrases that can be used to parse a text string.

Instead of or in combination with domain keywords, imperative verbs canbe identified in the text string, and the string can be parsed based ontheir location. In the example of FIG. 9, the word “Navigate” is thefirst imperative verb in the string. The word “send” is the nextimperative verb in the string. In some instances, the word “message” canbe interpreted as another imperative verb. In this example, however, avariety of factors can cause “message” to correctly be recognized as anoun: it is preceded with “a,” it follows a few words behind “send,” itis followed by “that,” etc. Two imperative verbs can thus be identifiedin user speech 920. The positions of the imperative verbs can then beused to parse the string into first candidate substring 922 beginningwith the imperative verb “Navigate” and second candidate substring 924beginning with the imperative verb “send.” Other imperative verbexamples include words like “schedule,” “set up,” “call,” “email,”“text,” “post,” “play,” “launch,” “remind,” “note,” “turn on,” “search,”etc. In addition, in some examples, a user utterance can be broken intothe various parts of speech to aid in correctly identifying imperativeverbs (e.g., as opposed to homonyms that might be nouns).

Instead of or in combination with domain keywords and/or imperativeverbs, a single user utterance can be parsed in multiple ways, and themultiple parses can be tested to determine the best parse. In otherexamples, a string can be parsed based on a predetermined substringlength (e.g., a number of characters, a number of words, etc.). In stillother examples, a string can be parsed in all possible ways (e.g.,ranging from each individual word as a substring to all words togetherin a single string) or nearly all possible ways (e.g., ranging from aminimum of each pair or triple of words as a substring to all wordstogether in a single string). Given multiple ways of parsing the string,parse results can be analyzed to dismiss various parse approaches basedon a variety of factors. For example, if a parse results in a candidatesubstring without a verb, that parse can be dismissed. In some examples,some or all of the various parse results can be analyzed as describedbelow with reference to block 808 of process 800 to identify the parsewith the highest likelihood of accurately reflecting a user'sintentions. A text string from a single utterance of user speech canthus be parsed in a variety of ways into at least a first candidatesubstring and a second candidate substring.

Referring again to process 800 of FIG. 8, at block 808, a firstprobability that the first candidate substring corresponds to a firstactionable command and a second probability that the second candidatesubstring corresponds to a second actionable command can be determined.In some examples, each candidate substring can be analyzed to determinea probability that it corresponds to a valid, actionable command. Asnoted above, this can be done, in some examples, to verify the accuracyof a particular parse and/or to compare the likelihoods of differentparses resulting in different candidate substrings. In some examples,the probabilities can be used to select the parse and its associatedsubstrings that may be most likely to accurately reflect the user'sintention (e.g., accurately split up a single utterance into distinctactionable commands). The probabilities for the various candidatesubstrings can be determined in a variety of ways, and multipleapproaches can be combined to arrive at an integrated probability (e.g.,using linear interpolation or other combination mechanisms).

In one example, each candidate substring (from one parse or frommultiple different potential parses) can be analyzed for semanticcoherence. In some examples, semantic coherence can be determined foreach candidate substring based on only the words within the substring(e.g., without considering context or previous or subsequent words).Semantic coherence can include a binary yes/no result or a probability.Semantic coherence can reflect whether a substring can stand alone as acoherent command (or request), having meaning in the target language(e.g., English). For example, as noted above, a substring without a verbcould be identified as lacking semantic coherence or as having a lowprobability of being semantically coherent (e.g., “to Jessica's house,”“progress report meeting,” etc.). In another example, a substringlacking a subject, argument, entity, or the like could be identified aslacking semantic coherence or as having a low probability of beingsemantically coherent (e.g., “Navigate to,” “Tell John that,” etc.). Inyet another example, a substring with an incomplete prepositional phraseor preposition lacking a noun could be identified as lacking semanticcoherence or as having a low probability of being semantically coherent(e.g., “Set a reminder to buy milk at,” “Schedule a meeting for,” etc.).In addition, in some examples, a candidate substring can be analyzedaccording to the parts of speech to verify adherence to grammar rules,and semantic coherence can be determined accordingly. It should beunderstood that semantic coherence can be determined for a substring ina variety of other ways, and different rules and tests can be appliedfor different languages, dialects, regions, or the like.

Instead of or in combination with semantic coherence, each candidatesubstring can be analyzed in view of user request templates of a virtualassistant. For example, a virtual assistant can process user requests inpart by matching a spoken request to a template. The template can haveassociated processes, tasks, algorithms, or the like that a virtualassistant can use to handle a user's request. In addition, a templatecan have designated variables where entities, arguments, or the like canbe expected (e.g., a contact name in the template “Call [contact].”).Each candidate substring can thus be compared to some or all of thevarious templates of a virtual assistant.

In one example, a similarity score or probability of a match can bedetermined based on how similar a substring is to a user requesttemplate. In some examples, words corresponding to expected entities,arguments, or the like can be ignored in the comparison. In anotherexample, a binary yes/no result can be produced based on whether or notone or more matching (or nearly matching) templates can be found fromthe comparison.

Referring to first candidate substring 922 of FIG. 9 as an example, thesubstring “Navigate to Jessica's house” can be compared to some or alltemplates of a virtual assistant. In one example, only templatesassociated with navigation can be used given the keyword “Navigate.” Inother examples, other or all templates can be used. In a virtualassistant, templates associated with providing maps, guidance, ornavigation can include “Navigate to [location],” “Get me directions to[location],” “Show me a map of [location],” or the like. In comparingcandidate substring 922 to such navigation-related templates, at leastone matching template can be identified: “Navigate to [location],” wherethe location variable can allow the words “Jessica's house” to beignored for purposes of comparison. In this example, at least onematching template can be identified, so a yes result or a highsimilarity score or probability can be produced.

In another example, a substring might be similar to a template withoutactually matching the template (e.g., having extraneous words, includingunexpected conjunctions, etc.). In such examples, a lower similarityscore or probability can be produced, or, depending on a particularapplication, either a yes or a no result can be produced. In otherexamples, no matching or similar template may be found, and a no resultor nil similarity score or probability can be produced. Candidatesubstrings can thus be compared to user request templates of a virtualassistant to identify matches, likelihoods of a match, similarityscores, or the like. It should be understood that any of a variety ofprobabilities, scores, or the like can be produced as desired for aparticular application based on comparisons with virtual assistantrequest templates.

Instead of or in combination with semantic coherence and/or templatematching, each candidate substring can be analyzed by testing them withvarious services of a virtual assistant. For example, each candidatesubstring can be submitted to one or more services of the virtualassistant (e.g., a messaging service, a navigation service, a phoneservice, etc.). The services can be queried to determine whether theycan resolve an actionable command from the candidate substring. In oneexample, services can deny a request outright or reject a substring(e.g., a zero likelihood of resolving the substring). In anotherexample, services can be configured to produce a likelihood of beingable to resolve the substring with more information (e.g., context, userdata, etc.). In yet another example, services can be configured toproduce a likelihood of the service being the appropriate service tohandle a user request (e.g., based on domain keywords, availablefunctions, and the like).

Referring to second candidate substring 924 of FIG. 9 as an example, amessaging service can, in some examples, produce a high likelihood ofbeing able to resolve the substring into an actionable command. Forexample, in the substring “send her a message that I'm on my way,” thewords “send” and “message” can correspond to messaging domain keywordsor templates and can lead a messaging service to produce a highlikelihood that it will be able to resolve the substring to anactionable command. In addition, the messaging service can identify thatadditional context may be necessary to resolve to a complete commandgiven that “her” may not be known from the substring alone, but themessaging service can produce a moderate likelihood of being able toresolve the substring given additional contextual information. Moreover,the messaging service can compare the substring to a messaging templateto recognize that the substring may likely be intended for the messagingservice rather than another service. A messaging service could thusproduce a high likelihood of being able to resolve candidate substring924 into an actionable command. In contrast, a navigation service, phoneservice, or search service might produce a low or nil likelihood ofbeing able to resolve candidate substring 924 based on the lack ofkeywords, matching templates, salient entities, and the like. Candidatesubstrings can thus be submitted to services to determine the likelihoodthat one of the services can resolve the substring to an actionablecommand. It should be understood that any of a variety of probabilities,likelihoods, binary results, or the like can be produced as desired fora particular application based on submission to various virtualassistant services.

In some examples, a combination of semantic coherence, templatematching, and/or service testing can be used to determine a probabilitythat a candidate substring corresponds to an actionable command. Forexample, the results of two or more tests can be combined using knownmethods (e.g., linear interpolation, etc.). In addition, a variety ofother tests or approaches can be used instead of or in addition to thosediscussed above to determine the probability that a candidate substringcorresponds to an actionable command. For example, ontologies could beused to attempt to resolve a candidate substring into an actionablecommand, and a probability can be produced based on the success orfailure of the ontology traversal. Various other approaches can also beused to test candidate substrings and verify the accuracy of a parse.

Referring again to process 800 of FIG. 8, at block 810, a determinationcan be made as to whether the probabilities determined at block 808exceed a threshold. For example, a minimum threshold can be determinedbelow which a particular parse can be deemed unlikely or unacceptable.In some examples, the probability of each candidate substringcorresponding to an actionable command can be compared to a thresholdlevel, and the failure of any candidate substring of a parse to meet thelevel can be deemed a failure of the parse leading to the “no” branch ofblock 810. In other examples, the probabilities of each candidatesubstring of a parse can be combined in a variety of ways (e.g.,normalization, linear interpolation, etc.) and then compared to athreshold. The threshold level can be determined empirically, based onvirtual assistant thresholds, or the like.

In other examples, however, block 808 (and block 810) can be omittedfrom process 800. For example, in some instances, a parse can bedetermined to be sufficiently accurate such that additional probabilitytesting or verification may be unnecessary. Common user requests, commoncombinations in multi-part commands, high probabilities of semanticallymeaningful parses, or the like can be used to determine that a parse maybe trusted enough to proceed without additional verification or accuracytesting. Moreover, in some examples, the approach used to parse amulti-part command can be sufficiently accurate so as to warrantomitting verification or accuracy testing. The testing described withregard to block 808 can thus be optional.

If the probabilities from block 808 fail to meet or exceed the thresholdat block 810 (e.g., the “no” branch), in some examples, process 800 canreturn to block 806 to attempt a different parse of the text string. Forexample, given the failure of the parse through the first pass, a newparse can be attempted or an adjustment can be made at block 806 toattempt to identify a more accurate parse on a second or subsequentpass. In other examples, however, most or all possible parses can betested simultaneously, in which case a failure at block 810 can resultin the virtual assistant querying for more information, asking for arepeat of the commands, returning a failure message, or the like.Similarly, should repeated parses fail to yield an accurate result, thevirtual assistant can query for more information, ask for a repeat ofthe commands, return a failure message, or the like. In some examples,if one or more of a set of candidate substrings of a parse exceeds athreshold, those candidate substrings can be processed further asdiscussed below while the virtual assistant addresses the remaining(failing) substring or substrings through dialogue, error messages, orthe like. In this manner, portions of a multi-part voice command can behandled whether or not other portions can be accurately resolved withoutadditional information.

If the probabilities from block 808 meet or exceed the threshold atblock 810 (e.g., the “yes” branch), process 800 can continue to block812. At block 812, a first intent associated with the first candidatesubstring and a second intent associated with the second candidatesubstring can be determined. In one example, a virtual assistant candetermine a user's intent from speech input by matching the user'sspeech to a particular domain with tasks, processes, and the like thatthe virtual assistant can perform or execute. Determining a user'sintent can also include resolving ambiguous words, pronouns, and thelike using context (e.g., user data, displayed information, previousrequests, etc.). Thus, at block 812, an intent can be determined foreach candidate substring in preparation for performing according to theuser's multi-part command.

In some examples, information from previous blocks of process 800 can beused to determine user intent at block 812. For example, domainkeywords, request templates, service matching, and the like fromprevious blocks discussed above can be used to identify the user intentof a particular candidate substring.

Referring to the example of FIG. 9, an intent can be determined forfirst candidate substring 922 and second candidate substring 924. In oneexample, first candidate substring 922 can be matched to the navigationdomain based on the command word “Navigate.” A matching template“Navigate to [location]” can also be identified within that domain. Thelocation “Jessica's house” can then be resolved using user data, such asidentifying a house address from the user's contact information for acontact named Jessica.

Second candidate substring 924 can be matched to a messaging domainbased on the words “send” and “message” and/or a corresponding template.For example, a template “send [recipient] a message that [message]” canbe identified. The recipient can be resolved based on the context of theprevious request from first candidate substring 922. In particular, theintended recipient “Jessica” (and her contact information from theuser's contacts) can be identified to replace “her” based on theprevious command in the multi-part command. The text in the messagevariable can be transcribed directly from the substring (e.g., “I'm onmy way.”).

In another example, context from a previous command in a multi-partcommand can similarly be used to resolve ambiguous words. In themulti-part command “Send Steve a message that I'll be late, and remindme to call him in twenty minutes,” the pronoun “him” can be ambiguouswithout the context of the prior command. In particular, in one example,a first actionable command can be identified for sending Steve a messagesaying “I'll be late.” The second actionable command, however, canutilize the context of the previous command for accurate intentinterpretation of which person the user would like to be reminded tocall in twenty minutes. The intent of the second command can thus beinterpreted based on the context of the previous command in theutterance to accurately determine that the user would like to bereminded to call Steve in twenty minutes.

A variety of other contextual information can similarly be used todetermine user intent for a particular candidate substring. For example,FIG. 10 illustrates exemplary user device 104 with display 1030 havingcontext for interpreting a multi-part voice command. It should beunderstood that FIG. 10 illustrates one example of a user device 104according to various examples herein, but many other examples arepossible (including devices without displays, devices with differentproportions, and the like). Likewise, it should be appreciated thatalthough display 1030 is illustrated as being incorporated with userdevice 104 (e.g., as a touchscreen), in other examples, display 1030 canbe separate from user device 104 (e.g., as in a television, computermonitor, separate user device, or the like).

In one example, when viewing the content shown in FIG. 10, a user canutter a multi-part command, such as “Save that picture, send it to mydad, and set it as my home screen wallpaper.” Such a multi-part commandcould be parsed into three candidate substrings: “Save that picture,”“send it to my dad,” and “set it as my home screen wallpaper.” For thefirst substring, the subject “that picture” can be ambiguous withoutadditional contextual information. Here, the content displayed ondisplay 1030, including links 1034 and picture 1032, can be used todisambiguate (or resolve) the first substring. In particular, given thecontext of the appearance of picture 1032 on display 1030, the subject“that picture” can be resolved to picture 1032. The user's intent forthe first sub string can thus be determined to be saving picture 1032(e.g., to memory on the user's device). Other content elements cansimilarly be used as context, including displayed text, emails,notifications, reminders, albums, songs, lists, calendar entries, or thelike.

The second and third substrings can be similarly ambiguous with thepronoun “it” in “send it to my dad” and “set it as my home screenwallpaper.” To resolve the ambiguity, context from the resolved firstsubstring can be used. In particular, the resolution of the subject“that picture” to picture 1032 on display 1030 can be used to identifythe intended subject of the second and third substrings. The user intentof the second substring can thus be determined to be sending picture1032 to a user's father (e.g., as identified in a contact list or thelike), and the user intent of the third substring can be determined tobe setting picture 1032 as a home screen wallpaper of a user's device.Displayed content can thus be used as context for interpreting userintent from user speech, and commands can be disambiguated based onpreviously issued commands within the same utterance (or from a previousutterance).

FIG. 11 illustrates exemplary user device 104 with display 1030 havingmultiple notifications of various types that can be used as context forinterpreting multi-part voice commands. In particular, display 1030shows notifications 1040, including emails 1142, messages 1144 (e.g.,instant messages, text messages, etc.), reminders 1146, and meetingrequest 1148. A multi-part voice command as discussed herein can be anefficient way for a user to manage multiple notifications at one time.For example, a user might utter “Reply to those emails with my out ofoffice reply, remind me to call mom in twenty minutes, tell Joe sure,snooze those reminders an hour, and accept that meeting request.” In oneexample, such a lengthy multi-part command can be uttered with pauseswhile a user thinks about next actions, and a virtual assistant cancontinue to await further commands without interrupting the user (e.g.,based on a button being held down, a user preference or setting, or thelike). In addition, a virtual assistant can begin to take actionimmediately upon interpreting user intent for one command withoutwaiting to resolve subsequent commands in a multi-part command. Forexample, a virtual assistant might begin sending out of office emails toJane Doe and Jennifer Smith while the user continues with commandsrelated to messages 1144, reminders 1146, and meeting request 1148. Inother examples, a virtual assistant can wait for a user to finish allcommands before beginning to execute processes associated with them.

A multi-part command associated with the content shown in FIG. 11 can bedisambiguated (as needed) using the types of notifications displayed,names associated with those notifications, details about thosenotifications, or the like. For example, for the substring “Reply tothose emails with my out of office reply,” the subject “those emails”can be ambiguous, but the content displayed can be used to determinethat “those emails” correspond to emails 1142 shown on display 1030. Inparticular, the email notification or content type can be used toaccurately associate “those emails” with the displayed email-relatednotifications. Similarly, the substring “tell Joe sure” can be ambiguous(e.g., which Joe), but the content displayed can be used to determinethat “Joe” corresponds to the sender of one of messages 1144. Inparticular, the name “Joe” can be checked against names shown on display1030 (as well as against user contacts and the like) to accuratelyidentify which Joe the user intended.

The substring “snooze those reminders an hour” can similarly beambiguous, but the content displayed can be used to determine that“those reminders” correspond to reminders 1146 shown on display 1030. Inparticular, the reminder notification type can be used to accuratelyassociate “those reminders” with reminders 1146. Finally, the substring“accept that meeting request” can similarly be ambiguous, but thecontent displayed can be used to determine that “that meeting request”corresponds to meeting request 1148 shown on display 1030. Inparticular, the meeting request notification type can be used toaccurately associate “that meeting request” with meeting request 1148.

In other examples, a user can reference notifications 1040 in otherways, and the displayed content can similarly be used to disambiguate auser's request. For example, a user can reference notifications by type(e.g., mail, reminder, etc.), names (e.g., Jane, Jennifer, Mom, etc.),subject matter (e.g., dinner invitation, report on progress, milk,progress report meeting, etc.), position reference or ordinal descriptor(e.g., the top two, the first email, the second reminder, the lastthree, etc.), or the like.

FIG. 12 illustrates exemplary user device 104 with display 1030 havingmultiple emails 1142 shown in email application 1250 that can be used ascontext for interpreting a multi-part voice command. A multi-part voicecommand as discussed herein can be an efficient way for a user to managelists of items, including the list of emails 1142 illustrated in FIG.12. It should be understood that email application 1250 is provided asan example of how emails might be displayed in a list, but many otherconfigurations are possible (e.g., including a preview pane or thelike), and any type of list can be used as context for interpretingmulti-part voice commands.

In one example, a user can refer to listed emails 1142 by ordinaldescriptors in issuing commands. For example, a user might utter “Sendmy out of office reply to the first three, add the sender of the lastone to the blocked contact list, and move the last one to spam.” Theordinal position of emails 1142 within the list can then be used todisambiguate the user's multi-part command. The descriptor “first three”in the first substring can be ambiguous, but the content displayed canbe used to determine that “the first three” corresponds to the firstthree emails 1142 shown on display 1030 (e.g., emails from Jane,Jennifer, and Alan). In particular, the ordinal position of the firstthree emails can be used to accurately associate “the first three” withthe first, second, and third emails 1142 in the list to determine theuser's intent. Similarly, the descriptor “the last one” in the secondand third substrings can be ambiguous, but the content displayed can beused to determine that “the last one” corresponds to the last email 1142shown on display 1030 (e.g., the email from Investor Tip Co.). Inparticular, the ordinal position of the fourth and final email in thelist can be used to accurately associate “the last one” with the fourthemail 1142 in the list to determine the user's intent. In otherexamples, a user can refer to listed items in other ways that can besimilarly disambiguated (e.g., second email, third reminder, second tolast, penultimate, final, middle one, last two entries, top three items,bottom four, etc.).

In other examples, a user can refer to an entire list of content inissuing commands. For example, a user might utter “Mark all of those asread, and move them all to trash.” The appearance of a list of emails1142 on display 1030 can be used to disambiguate the user's multi-partcommand. The descriptors “all of those” and “them all” can be ambiguous,but the content displayed can be used to determine that “all of those”and “them all” correspond to the complete list of four emails 1142 shownin FIG. 12. In still other examples, various other ambiguous referenceterms can be employed and similarly disambiguated based on list content.

In addition to using displayed content to disambiguate terms in amulti-part command, various other methods can be employed fordetermining user intent for candidate substrings. In one example,potential (or likely) user requests can be determined based on displayedinformation, and user intent can be determined based on the potentialuser requests. Referring again to FIG. 12 as an example, a user may belikely to issue a certain set of commands related to email managementwhen viewing emails 1142 in email application 1250. For example,potential user requests related to email management can includereplying, deleting, moving, filing, forwarding, marking as read, markingas unread, marking as spam, archiving, blocking a sender, and the like.When determining user intent for substrings, these potential userrequests can be given additional weight or priority, or can be used as acomparison (e.g., comparing templates) to accurately interpret usercommands. In particular, based on emails 1142 appearing on display 1030,potential user requests associated with email management can be used ininterpreting user commands based on at least some likelihood that a userwill issue commands associated with what is displayed.

In other examples, potential user requests can be determined based on avariety of other content to provide accurate intent interpretation. Forexample, referring again to FIG. 11, potential user requests can beidentified for handling notifications 1140, and these potential userrequests can be used in determining user intent. Associated commands caninclude dismissing an item, snoozing a reminder, replying to a message,accepting a meeting request, proposing a new time for a meeting, or thelike. In another example, referring again to FIG. 10, potential userrequests can be identified for interacting with the displayed content,including links 1034 and picture 1032, and these potential user requestscan be used in determining user intent. Associated commands can includesaving a picture, sharing a picture, sharing a link, printing a page,selecting a displayed item, or the like. Potential user requests canthus be identified based on displayed content, and the identifiedpotential user requests can be used to determine user intent forsubstrings in a multi-part command.

Referring again to process 800 of FIG. 8, at block 814, a first processassociated with the first intent and a second process associated withthe second intent can be executed. With user intents determined for eachcandidate substring (or some candidate substrings), the processesassociated with the user intents can be executed. For example, messagescan be composed and sent, emails can be deleted, notifications can bedismissed, or the like. In some examples, multiple tasks or processescan be associated with individual user intents, and the various tasks orprocesses can be executed at block 814. In other examples, the virtualassistant can engage the user in a dialogue to acquire additionalinformation as necessary for completing task flows. As mentioned above,in some examples, if only a subset of the substrings of a multi-partcommand can be interpreted into user intents, the processes associatedwith those user intents can be executed, and the virtual assistant canhandle the remaining substrings in a variety of ways (e.g., request moreinformation, return an error, etc.).

Referring again to process 800 of FIG. 8, at block 816, anacknowledgment associated with the first intent and the second intentcan be provided to the user. For example, an acknowledgment can beprovided to the user to indicate acceptance of one or more commands,status of executing various commands, interpretations of variouscommands, errors associated with particular commands, information beingneeded for some commands, or the like. In one example, such anacknowledgment can include an audible confirmation (e.g., a tone, spokenwords, or the like). For example, a virtual assistant can repeat back tothe user a list of commands—as interpreted—as confirmation (or to allowthe user the opportunity to correct, interject, cancel, etc.). Inanother example, a confirmatory tone can be played to indicate validinterpretation of a user's commands. Various other audible forms offeedback can likewise be used.

In another example, acknowledgment of a multi-part command can includehaptic feedback. For example, a user device can be vibrated to eitherconfirm valid interpretation of a user's commands or to indicate anerror or lack of information. Haptic feedback can also be performed inpatterns to indicate certain information, such as vibrating a set numberof pulses to indicate the number of identified commands.

In yet another example, acknowledgment of a multi-part command caninclude providing tasks to the user by, for example, speaking the tasksand/or displaying them on a display. In particular, user intents (e.g.,the first intent and the second intent of blocks 812, 814, and 816 ofprocess 800) can be associated with particular virtual assistant tasks,and the virtual assistant can paraphrase those tasks and provide them tothe user by, for example, speaking and/or displaying them.

FIG. 13 illustrates exemplary user device 104 with display 1030 showingparaphrased tasks 1360 associated with a multi-part command. It shouldbe understood that tasks 1360 can be spoken instead of or in addition tobeing displayed. As illustrated, three tasks are displayed as anacknowledgment to the user of a multi-part command. For example, such acommand might have been uttered with reference to FIG. 12, and couldinclude a multi-part command such as “Put the last email into spam, andadd its sender to the blocked list, and reply to the first three sayingI'm on vacation in Bali.” Three substrings may have been identified thatcould be associated with the paraphrased tasks shown in FIG. 13. Inparticular, a first paraphrased task can include “Put ‘Great NewOpportunity’ email into spam folder,” a second paraphrased task caninclude “Add ‘Investor Tip Co.’ to blocked sender list,” and a thirdparaphrased task can include “Send email to Jane, Jennifer, and Alan:‘I'm on vacation in Bali.’” Acknowledgment of a multi-part user commandcan thus include providing a paraphrased task to the user for eachinterpreted command by speaking and/or displaying them.

In some examples, paraphrased tasks can be displayed within a dialogueinterface of a virtual assistant (e.g., in a conversation format), withor without a transcription of a user's speech. In other examples,paraphrased tasks can be displayed in a pop-up window, notificationarea, or the like. In still other examples, displayed tasks 1360 (or atranscription of a user's speech) can be selectable for editing,canceling, prioritizing, or the like. For example, a user can select oneof tasks 1360, and a menu of actions can be provided for editing thetask parameters, canceling the task, prioritizing the task, delaying thetask, or the like. In another example, a default action can beassociated with selecting a displayed task, such as editing the task,pausing the task, canceling the task, or the like.

Moreover, in some examples, completion indicators and/or statusindicators can be provided to the user by, for example, playing anassociated indicator tone, speaking an associated status indicator, ordisplaying associated indicators. FIG. 13 illustrates exemplaryindicators associated with tasks 1360. In one example, upon completionof a process or task, a completion indicator can be provided to theuser, such as displaying checkmark 1362 by the first task 1360 toindicate completion. In another example, a tone could be played or wordscould be spoken to indicate completion (e.g., “first task completed,” orthe like).

In another example, while a process or task is still being executed(before completion), a processing status indicator can be provided tothe user. Status could be provided by sounding a tone or speaking thestatus (e.g., “processing the second task,” or the like). Status couldalso be provided by displaying a processing status indicator such ashourglass 1364 and/or status bar 1366 (or an empty box where checkmark1362 can be placed upon completion of the task). In one example,hourglass 1364 can indicate that the task is still being executed. Inother examples, however, hourglass 1364 can indicate that moreinformation is needed, that the request is still being interpreted, thata search is being conducted, or the like. Status bar 1366 can also beused to indicate task execution status, and can reflect the percentageof completion of a particular task. In other examples, processing statusindicators can include animations, graphs, font changes (e.g., textcolor, size, etc.), or the like.

Various other acknowledgments can also be provided to a user to conveyinformation about a multi-part command (e.g., illuminating indicatorlights, animating emails being trashed, animating messages beingcomposed and sent, etc.). In addition, any combination ofacknowledgments can be provided, such as displaying a list of tasks,speaking the tasks aloud, and displaying status and completionindicators.

Furthermore, in some examples, acknowledgments can be provided while auser is still uttering commands. For example, confirmatory tones, hapticfeedback, speech, or the like can be provided to a user upon, forexample, detecting a complete actionable command. In particular, avirtual assistant can briefly speak “okay,” play a tone, vibrate a userdevice, display user speech, or the like as commands are being spoken.This can provide confirmation to a user that a command is understood,thereby allowing the user to continue issuing commands with confidencethat the virtual assistant is handling the commands along the way.

In other examples, the virtual assistant can provide visual confirmationto the user that it is recognizing multiple commands in a single streamof user speech. FIG. 14A and FIG. 14B illustrate exemplary virtualassistant interfaces 1470 for conveying recognition of a multi-partvoice command on display 1030 of user device 104. In one example,different commands recognized within a stream of user speech can beemphasized differently than other commands to indicate that the virtualassistant has correctly recognized that a multi-part command is beingissued. In one example, such emphasis can be added after the userfinishes speaking. In other examples, however, the user's speech can betranscribed as the user speaks, and the candidate substrings can bedynamically emphasized differently while the transcribed text isstreaming on a display of a user device. This dynamic feedback while theuser is speaking can confirm to the user that the virtual assistant isunderstanding that a multi-part command is being issued, which can allowthe user to confidently continue to issue commands as desired.

FIG. 14A illustrates one example of emphasizing different candidatesubstrings differently in a virtual assistant interface 1470. Asillustrated, interface 1470 can include a conversational dialogueinterface with assistant greeting 1472 prompting a user to make arequest. Transcribed user speech 1474 illustrates one example ofdifferently emphasizing candidate substrings in user speech as it istranscribed. In particular, the first candidate substring is shown inbold, italic, and underlined text. The second candidate substring isshown in bold, underlined text. The third candidate substring is shownin italic, underlined text. In this manner, different candidatesubstrings or commands can be emphasized so as to convey that thevirtual assistant recognizes that a multi-part command is being issued,and that the virtual assistant is correctly recognizing the differentcommands individually.

In the example of FIG. 14A, transcribed user speech 1474 is shown asincomplete as the user may still be issuing a command. In particular,the third command begins with “reply to the first three saying,” but thetext of the associated message has not yet been spoken. In someexamples, auto-complete suggestions 1476 can be displayed, and the usercan select one of the auto-complete suggestions to complete a commandthat is currently being issued. For example, the user can tap on theauto-complete suggestion “I'm out of the office” to complete the thirdcommand and provide the message text of the reply. In other examples,auto-complete suggestions 1476 can provide example commands related toprevious commands in an utterance, commands related to objects shown ona display, commands frequently issued by the user, or the like.Moreover, in some examples, auto-complete suggestions 1476 can bepositioned next to, in-line with, or in another position relative to thecurrent command being issued. For example, auto-complete suggestions1476 can be positioned near an object or partial command and connectedto it with a line or other graphical association (e.g., dots).

FIG. 14B illustrates another example of emphasizing different candidatesubstrings differently in a virtual assistant interface 1470. Inparticular, transcribed user speech 1478 illustrates emphasizingdifferent candidate substrings using tag-cloud-like clustering. In oneexamples, the various commands can be spatially separated with the wordsof each command clustered together. In some examples, words that can beedited, keywords, command words, subject words, or otherwise importantwords can be emphasized with bold text, larger font size, or the like.In other examples, words can be emphasized differently based onimportance. For example, the primary command word (e.g., send) can beshown in the largest, boldest font, subject words (e.g., recipientnames) can be shown in a medium font, and other words can be shown in asmall font. The words can be clustered together in variety of ways,including out of order and in different orientations. In some examples,different commands can be sized differently based on interpretationconfidence associated with a command (e.g., how confident the virtualassistant is that the interpretation is accurate based on the user'sspeech). Command clusters can be separated and displayed as a user isspeaking commands or after a user finishes speaking a multi-partcommand. Various other cluster-type displays can also be used toemphasize multi-part command distinctions.

Different commands or candidate substrings in a multi-part command canalso be emphasized in a variety of other ways. For example, individualcommands can be circled, outlined, or otherwise separated by drawinggraphical markers (e.g., drawing a shape around a command, drawingseparating lines or graphics between commands, placing differentcommands in different speech bubbles, or the like). In another example,different commands can be colored differently (e.g., red text for afirst command, green text for a second command, blue text for a thirdcommand, etc.). In yet another example, various combinations of theabove approaches can be used to differently emphasize differentcandidate substrings, commands, tasks, or the like (e.g., usingdifferently colored words within a clustered command that is spatiallyseparated from another clustered command). Accordingly, using any ofthese various visual display approaches, the virtual assistant can showthat multiple commands are being recognized in a single stream.Moreover, in other examples, these visual display approaches can becombined with other forms of feedback (e.g., audible, haptic, etc.)discussed herein.

Process 800 of FIG. 8 can thus be used to handle multi-part commands. Asnoted above, and as will be understood by one of ordinary skill in theart, various modifications can be made, including removing blocks ofprocess 800, modifying the order of operations, expanding the quantitiesof various operations, or the like.

In addition, in any of the various examples discussed herein, variousaspects can be personalized for a particular user. As discussed above,user data including contacts, preferences, location, and the like can beused to interpret voice commands. The various processes discussed hereincan also be modified in various other ways according to userpreferences, contacts, text, usage history, profile data, demographics,or the like. In addition, such preferences and settings can be updatedover time based on user interactions (e.g., frequently uttered commands,frequently selected applications, etc.). Gathering and use of user datathat is available from various sources can be used to improve thedelivery to users of invitational content or any other content that maybe of interest to them. The present disclosure contemplates that in someinstances, this gathered data can include personal information data thatuniquely identifies or can be used to contact or locate a specificperson. Such personal information data can include demographic data,location-based data, telephone numbers, email addresses, home addresses,or any other identifying information.

The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personalinformation data, in the present technology, can be used to the benefitof users. For example, the personal information data can be used todeliver targeted content that is of greater interest to the user.Accordingly, use of such personal information data enables calculatedcontrol of the delivered content. Further, other uses for personalinformation data that benefit the user are also contemplated by thepresent disclosure.

The present disclosure further contemplates that the entitiesresponsible for the collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage,or other use of such personal information data will comply withwell-established privacy policies and/or privacy practices. Inparticular, such entities should implement and consistently use privacypolicies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting orexceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining personalinformation data as private and secure. For example, personalinformation from users should be collected for legitimate and reasonableuses of the entity and not shared or sold outside of those legitimateuses. Further, such collection should occur only after receiving theinformed consent of the users. Additionally, such entities would takeany needed steps for safeguarding and securing access to such personalinformation data and ensuring that others with access to the personalinformation data adhere to their privacy policies and procedures.Further, such entities can subject themselves to evaluation by thirdparties to certify their adherence to widely accepted privacy policiesand practices.

Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplates examplesin which users selectively block the use of, or access to, personalinformation data. That is, the present disclosure contemplates thathardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent or blockaccess to such personal information data. For example, in the case ofadvertisement delivery services, the present technology can beconfigured to allow users to select to “opt in” or “opt out” ofparticipation in the collection of personal information data duringregistration for services. In another example, users can select not toprovide location information for targeted content delivery services. Inyet another example, users can select not to provide precise locationinformation, but permit the transfer of location zone information.

Therefore, although the present disclosure broadly covers use ofpersonal information data to implement one or more various disclosedexamples, the present disclosure also contemplates that the variousexamples can also be implemented without the need for accessing suchpersonal information data. That is, the various examples of the presenttechnology are not rendered inoperable due to the lack of all or aportion of such personal information data. For example, content can beselected and delivered to users by inferring preferences based onnon-personal information data or a bare minimum amount of personalinformation, such as the content being requested by the deviceassociated with a user, other non-personal information available to thecontent delivery services, or publicly available information.

In accordance with some examples, FIG. 15 shows a functional blockdiagram of an electronic device 1500 configured in accordance with theprinciples of the various described examples. The functional blocks ofthe device can be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination ofhardware and software to carry out the principles of the variousdescribed examples. It is understood by persons of skill in the art thatthe functional blocks described in FIG. 15 can be combined or separatedinto sub-blocks to implement the principles of the various describedexamples. Therefore, the description herein optionally supports anypossible combination or separation or further definition of thefunctional blocks described herein.

As shown in FIG. 15, electronic device 1500 can include an input unit1502 configured to receive information (e.g., a microphone for capturinguser speech, a device for receiving user speech through a network,etc.). Electronic device 1500 can further include an output unit 1504configured to output information (e.g., a speaker for playing sounds, adisplay for displaying information, a device for transmittinginformation through a network, etc.). Electronic device 1500 can furtherinclude processing unit 1506 coupled to input unit 1502 and output unit1504. In some examples, processing unit 1506 can include a speech inputreceiving unit 1508, text string generating unit 1510, text stringparsing unit 1512, probability determining unit 1514, intent determiningunit 1516, process execution unit 1518, and acknowledgment providingunit 1520.

Processing unit 1506 can be configured to receive speech input from auser (e.g., through input unit 1502 using speech input receiving unit1508), wherein the speech input comprises a single utterance having oneor more actionable commands. Processing unit 1506 can be furtherconfigured to generate a text string (e.g., using text string generatingunit 1510) based on the speech input using a speech transcriptionprocess. Processing unit 1506 can be further configured to parse thetext string (e.g., using text string parsing unit 1512) into at least afirst candidate sub string and a second candidate substring. Processingunit 1506 can be further configured to determine (e.g., usingprobability determining unit 1514) a first probability that the firstcandidate sub string corresponds to a first actionable command and asecond probability that the second candidate substring corresponds to asecond actionable command. Processing unit 1506 can be furtherconfigured to, in response to the first probability and the secondprobability exceeding a threshold, determine (e.g., using intentdetermining unit 1516) a first intent associated with the firstcandidate substring and a second intent associated with the secondcandidate substring. Processing unit 1506 can be further configured toexecute (e.g., using process execution unit 1518) a first processassociated with the first intent and a second process associated withthe second intent. Processing unit 1506 can be further configured toprovide to the user (e.g., through output unit 1504 using acknowledgmentproviding unit 1520) an acknowledgment associated with the first intentand the second intent.

In some examples, parsing the text string (e.g., using text stringparsing unit 1512) into at least the first candidate substring and thesecond candidate substring comprises identifying a first keyword in thetext string that corresponds to a first domain to determine the firstcandidate substring, and identifying a second keyword in the text stringthat corresponds to a second domain to determine the second candidatesubstring. In other examples, parsing the text string (e.g., using textstring parsing unit 1512) into at least the first candidate substringand the second candidate substring comprises identifying a firstimperative verb in the text string to determine the first candidatesubstring, and identifying a second imperative verb in the text stringto determine the second candidate substring.

In some examples, determining (e.g., using probability determining unit1514) the first probability that the first candidate substringcorresponds to the first actionable command and the second probabilitythat the second candidate substring corresponds to the second actionablecommand comprises determining a first semantic coherence of the firstcandidate substring and a second semantic coherence of the secondcandidate substring, and determining the first probability and thesecond probability based on the first semantic coherence and the secondsemantic coherence. In other examples, determining (e.g., usingprobability determining unit 1514) the first probability that the firstcandidate substring corresponds to the first actionable command and thesecond probability that the second candidate substring corresponds tothe second actionable command comprises comparing the first candidatesubstring and the second candidate substring to one or more user requesttemplates, and determining the first probability and the secondprobability based on the comparison. In still other examples,determining (e.g., using probability determining unit 1514) the firstprobability that the first candidate substring corresponds to the firstactionable command and the second probability that the second candidatesubstring corresponds to the second actionable command comprisessubmitting the first candidate substring and the second candidatesubstring to at least a first service and a second service, receiving afirst likelihood that the first service can resolve the first actionablecommand and a second likelihood that the second service can resolve thesecond actionable command, and determining the first probability and thesecond probability based on the first likelihood and the secondlikelihood.

In some examples, determining (e.g., using intent determining unit 1516)the first intent associated with the first candidate substring and thesecond intent associated with the second candidate substring comprisesdetermining the second intent based on at least one word in the firstcandidate substring. In other examples, determining (e.g., using intentdetermining unit 1516) the first intent associated with the firstcandidate substring and the second intent associated with the secondcandidate substring comprises determining the first intent or the secondintent based on information displayed on a display associated with theelectronic device. In some examples, the information comprises a list,and determining (e.g., using intent determining unit 1516) the firstintent associated with the first candidate substring and the secondintent associated with the second candidate substring comprisesdetermining the first intent or the second intent based on an ordinaldescriptor in the first candidate substring or the second candidatesubstring, wherein the ordinal descriptor is associated with one or moreitems in the list. In other examples, the information comprises one ormore notifications. In still other examples, the information comprisesone or more emails. In some examples, determining (e.g., using intentdetermining unit 1516) the first intent associated with the firstcandidate substring and the second intent associated with the secondcandidate substring comprises determining one or more potential userrequests based on the information displayed on the display, anddetermining the first intent or the second intent based on the one ormore potential user requests.

In some examples, the acknowledgment (e.g., from acknowledgmentproviding unit 1520) comprises an audible confirmation. In otherexamples, the acknowledgment comprises haptic feedback. In someexamples, providing to the user (e.g., through output unit 1504 usingacknowledgment providing unit 1520) the acknowledgment associated withthe first intent and the second intent comprises providing a first taskassociated with the first intent and a second task associated with thesecond intent. In one example, providing the first task associated withthe first intent and the second task associated with the second intentcomprises displaying the first task and the second task.

In some examples, processing unit 1506 can be further configured to, inresponse to completing the first process, provide (e.g., usingacknowledgment providing unit 1520) a first indicator associated withthe first task, and in response to completing the second process,provide a second indicator associated with the second task. In oneexample, providing the first indicator associated with the first taskcomprises displaying the first indicator, and providing the secondindicator associated with the second task comprises displaying thesecond indicator. In other examples, processing unit 1506 can be furtherconfigured to, before completing the first process, provide (e.g., usingacknowledgment providing unit 1520) a first processing status indicatorassociated with the first task, and before completing the secondprocess, provide a second processing status indicator associated withthe second task. In one example, providing the first processing statusindicator associated with the first task comprises displaying the firstprocessing status indicator, and providing the second processing statusindicator associated with the second task comprises displaying thesecond processing status indicator. In some examples, the firstindicator and the second indicator comprise a checkmark. In otherexamples, the first processing status indicator and the secondprocessing status indicator comprise one or more of an hourglass, ananimation, or a status bar.

In other examples, providing to the user (e.g., through output unit 1504using acknowledgment providing unit 1520) the acknowledgment associatedwith the first intent and the second intent comprises displaying thefirst candidate substring using a first emphasis and displaying thesecond candidate substring using a second emphasis that is differentthan the first emphasis. In some examples, the first emphasis and thesecond emphasis comprise one or more of bold text, italic text,underlined text, circled text, outlined text, colored text, andclustered text.

The operations described above with reference to FIG. 8 are, optionally,implemented by components depicted in FIGS. 1A-1B or FIG. 15. Forexample, receiving operation 802, generating operation 804, parsingoperation 806, determining operations 808-812, executing operation 814,and providing operation 816 are, optionally, implemented by event sorter170, event recognizer 180, and event handler 190. Event monitor 171 inevent sorter 170 detects a contact on touch-sensitive display 112, andevent dispatcher module 174 delivers the event information toapplication 136-1. A respective event recognizer 180 of application136-1 compares the event information to respective event definitions186, and determines whether a first contact at a first location on thetouch-sensitive surface (or whether rotation of the device) correspondsto a predefined event or sub-event, such as selection of an object on auser interface, or rotation of the device from one orientation toanother. When a respective predefined event or sub-event is detected,event recognizer 180 activates an event handler 190 associated with thedetection of the event or sub-event. Event handler 190 optionally usesor calls data updater 176 or object updater 177 to update theapplication internal state 192. In some embodiments, event handler 190accesses a respective GUI updater 178 to update what is displayed by theapplication. Similarly, it would be clear to a person having ordinaryskill in the art how other processes can be implemented based on thecomponents depicted in FIGS. 1A-1B.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the techniques and their practical applications. Othersskilled in the art are thereby enabled to best utilize the techniquesand various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated.

Although the disclosure and examples have been fully described withreference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that variouschanges and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in theart. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as beingincluded within the scope of the disclosure and examples as defined bythe claims.

1. (canceled)
 2. An electronic device, comprising: one or moreprocessors; and memory storing one or more programs configured to beexecuted by the one or more processors, the one or more programsincluding instructions for: receiving speech input, wherein the speechinput comprises a single utterance having two or more actionablecommands; generating a text string based on the speech input using aspeech transcription process; identifying a first keyword in the textstring; identifying a second keyword in the text string; parsing thetext string into at least a first candidate substring and a secondcandidate sub string based at least in part on the positions of thefirst keyword and the second keyword in the text string; determine afirst intent associated with the first candidate substring and a secondintent associated with the second candidate substring, wherein the firstintent corresponds to a first actionable command in the speech input andthe second intent corresponds to a second actionable command in thespeech input; and execute a first process identified by the first intentand a second process identified by the second intent.
 3. The electronicdevice of claim 2, wherein the first keyword corresponds to a firstdomain and the second keyword corresponds to a second domain.
 4. Theelectronic device of claim 2, wherein the first keyword is a firstimperative verb and the second keyword is a second imperative verb. 5.The electronic device of claim 2, wherein determining the first intentassociated with the first candidate substring and the second intentassociated with the second candidate substring comprises: determiningthe second intent based on at least one word in the first candidatesubstring.
 6. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein determining thefirst intent associated with the first candidate substring and thesecond intent associated with the second candidate substring comprises:determining the first intent or the second intent based on informationdisplayed on a display associated with the electronic device.
 7. Theelectronic device of claim 6, wherein the information comprises a list;and wherein determining the first intent associated with the firstcandidate substring and the second intent associated with the secondcandidate substring comprises: determining the first intent or thesecond intent based on an ordinal descriptor in the first candidatesubstring or the second candidate substring, wherein the ordinaldescriptor is associated with one or more items in the list.
 8. Theelectronic device of claim 6, wherein the information comprises one ormore notifications.
 9. The electronic device of claim 6, wherein theinformation comprises one or more emails.
 10. The electronic device ofclaim 6, wherein determining the first intent associated with the firstcandidate substring and the second intent associated with the secondcandidate substring comprises: determining one or more potential userrequests based on the information displayed on the display; anddetermining the first intent or the second intent based on the one ormore potential user requests.
 11. The electronic device of claim 2,wherein the one or more programs further include instructions for:providing an acknowledgment that the first process and the secondprocess have at least begun execution.
 12. The electronic device ofclaim 11, wherein providing the acknowledgment associated with the firstintent and the second intent comprises: providing a first taskassociated with the first intent and a second task associated with thesecond intent.
 13. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the one ormore programs further include instructions for: in response tocompleting the first process, providing a first indicator associatedwith the first task; and in response to completing the second process,providing a second indicator associated with the second task.
 14. Theelectronic device of claim 12, wherein the one or more programs furtherinclude instructions for: before completing the first process, providinga first processing status indicator associated with the first task; andbefore completing the second process, providing a second processingstatus indicator associated with the second task.
 15. The electronicdevice of claim 11, wherein providing the acknowledgment associated withthe first intent and the second intent comprises: displaying the firstcandidate substring using a first emphasis and displaying the secondcandidate substring using a second emphasis that is different than thefirst emphasis.
 16. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein each ofthe first emphasis and the second emphasis comprise one or more of boldtext, italic text, underlined text, circled text, outlined text, coloredtext, and clustered text.
 17. A method, comprising: at an electronicdevice: receiving speech input, wherein the speech input comprises asingle utterance having two or more actionable commands; generating atext string based on the speech input using a speech transcriptionprocess; identifying a first keyword in the text string; identifying asecond keyword in the text string; parsing the text string into at leasta first candidate substring and a second candidate sub string based atleast in part on the positions of the first keyword and the secondkeyword in the text string; determine a first intent associated with thefirst candidate substring and a second intent associated with the secondcandidate substring, wherein the first intent corresponds to a firstactionable command in the speech input and the second intent correspondsto a second actionable command in the speech input; and execute a firstprocess identified by the first intent and a second process identifiedby the second intent.
 18. A non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium storing one or more programs configured to be executed by one ormore processors of an electronic device, the one or more programsincluding instructions for: receiving speech input, wherein the speechinput comprises a single utterance having two or more actionablecommands; generating a text string based on the speech input using aspeech transcription process; identifying a first keyword in the textstring; identifying a second keyword in the text string; parsing thetext string into at least a first candidate substring and a secondcandidate sub string based at least in part on the positions of thefirst keyword and the second keyword in the text string; determine afirst intent associated with the first candidate substring and a secondintent associated with the second candidate substring, wherein the firstintent corresponds to a first actionable command in the speech input andthe second intent corresponds to a second actionable command in thespeech input; and execute a first process identified by the first intentand a second process identified by the second intent.